As Erik proceeds through the RAG, we are coming closer to the point where he will attach to a new squadron shortly after the new year (or something like that - you know how the Navy loves consistent and stable timelines). Options and details are constantly in flux but he posed a question to me recently of would I rather...
A) go back to Japan or
B) have him go to a squadron that is planning to go on a 10 month deployment next year (with a 4 month work up which essentially means a one year deployment in some ways).
I chose B and he seemed a tad surprised so we played devil's advocate a bit. My thinking is that Japan was a lot of fun when we were "single" (aka no kids) and I could easily visit him in ports and fly home to see my family when he was gone for months. Although the deployments aren't long, they are short and disruptive; I think this could be a bigger toll on the kids than if we just concretely said, "Daddy will be gone for a while." Plus it is very very far from family. Although Erik had a great counterpoint that those are the situations in which we add to the arsenal of best friends we call our military family. But in the end that doesn't replace the fact that the kids would have less access to the grandparents, aunts, uncles. I don't know - we'd make the most of it if it happens, but... I don't know.
There are other squadrons to consider, but those are the two he has presented to me for now. Options will change next week, and the week after that, and the week after that...
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