A SpouseBUZZ reader on the tail end of a first deployment asks a great question:
This is my first deployment as an Army GF. The good news is that we're almost done! C is due back home within the month. The bad news is that I have been surprised to find that this last part of the deployment is proving to be the most difficult for me emotionally. I am torn between the delight and anticipation of his homecoming, and unabated terror that something is going to happen that will ruin it. Knock wood, I know. But I had to say it out loud. Does anyone else feel this way when their loved one is due to redeploy?
We get a lot of questions from girlfriends and spouses who make the point that the home stretch is often a challenging time, but A brings up something we don't talk about much. That feeling of knowing you're so close to a reunion and fearing something bad might happen in the waning days. I think part of the reason we rarely discuss it is that we have this sinking feeling that we may jinx our situation. Superstition, if you will. But kudos to A for saying it out loud. Because chances are, most of us have had these very thoughts.
I watched a movie some years ago about the Vietnam war. In the movie, when troops were thirty days away from going home, they didn't go outside the wire. Of course, that was entertainment and it's not the reality of the battlefield today, but I remember thinking what a relief it would be to know your spouse was going to be "relatively" safe when he was inside of that 30-day window. I can definitely relate to A's question and thought process. It's an incredibly emotional time.
