Halfway through, Old friends and New Faces

Well I just crossed the halfway point of my deployment. I'm here for 10 months, which is more than most Navy folks, but less than most Army folks. It's kind of hard to believe that I've been working non-stop for over four months without a day off that whole time. In that span I've put nearly 50 percent of my actual hours into work. In that time, I have completely forgotten about most luxuries. I haven't sat on an actual couch since September.

But while I've still got a long way to go, it's the end of the road for my hard-working and long-suffering comrades. We had become a fairly tight-knit group, but they're all going now. The army typically swaps out whole units at a time, so the corps that I work for is all going back home to Fort Hood and a new corps is coming in to take its place.

Of course, I'm an individual augmentee, which means I stay on as a holdover. In my smaller group of co-workers (about 15 officers and enlisted), there are four of us who are staying. Suddenly, we have to learn a whole new group of personalities to work with and share common experiences with.

When I arrived, the folks I began working for were sort of the grizzled veterans of Iraq. They'd been here for a year, and most were on their second tour. They were smart. Even the youngest Non-commissioned officer knows more about Iraq than almost every member of congress. It's what we do. Intelligence and analysis. And these guys and gals had learned their trade well.

I thought that I could never get to that level. Certainly not in only 10 months. But in the crash course immersion program I've been through, I realized that 1 month here is as intense as 5 months in my regular job back home.

This all hit me as the new folks arrived. Quite a few of them began asking questions that seemed to me to be very naive. Questions that I thought everyone knew the answer to. Of course, it was only gradually that I realized that these people are basically where I was five months ago.

With five more months to go, I feel like I'm finally hitting my stride in usefulness. Gone are the days when I wondered if what I did really mattered in the big scheme of things. Now I know it does, and I take pride in my work. Even if it means spending extra time to make sure every little detail is right, it's worth it. Decisions are made, ultimately, off of the work that I do. Decisions that affect real people.

That's what I remind myself as I move on. Even though it's the downhill slide, there's no room for sloppiness. Next month, though, I get my glorious two weeks of leave. A chance to recharge my batteries and come back for the home stretch. And then it's work, work, work, but at least the end will be in sight.