The Afghanistan List

I can’t believe it. The other day they had a list going around looking for volunteers that want to go to Afghanistan. And we’re still here in Iraq. There are rumors that our unit is going to Afghanistan next year. Great, I thought. My kids will be all grown up by the time I get home. I guess I can’t complain much since I volunteered. But that’s right. Our unit is possibly getting deployed to Afghanistan next year. And what is my employer going to think? This is really going to put my career on hold. Maybe I should just go ahead and join the active duty Army. That way I don’t have to worry about my career when get home. The good thing is the pay is good. So I can’t complain there and the military benefits are among the best in the world.

I haven’t told my employer yet. I’m hoping she doesn’t get a heart attack when I do tell her. Most of the people in our unit did not list their name to go to Afghanistan. I think they feel the same way I do. I’m hoping I don’t get told because I’m not volunteering. I need to spend whatever time I have left with my boys. The cool thing about the Guard is that they’ll take volunteers before they take voluntolds. So, I’m hoping that there are a lot of volunteers back home or my stay there may be short lived. I’d like it better if they deployed me to the border. At least then I’d be in my home state of Arizona and I’d get to be with my family. I think that’s a good use of the National Guard, to guard our home country at home. That’s why it’s called the National Guard.

Sure I’d be happy to do it if I was single and didn’t have any kids. I’d be making bank over here. But my boys keep asking me when I’m coming home, the poor guys. Others have babies that were newborns when we left for this mission. They’ll miss all of those firsts before we get back home. It just goes with the job. There’s not much we could do.