My Deployment

The 5 Stages of a Deployment

By Lee Hoover ⋅ July 6, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Well, I’m home. I’m finally here in San Antonio, with Steph, and I have to admit there is no other place in the world I’d rather be. I am once again reminded that I am easily THE luckiest guy in the world.

Now that I am done with my deployment, I figured I would share what I have come to call the five stages of a deployment. I’m not a doctor and this isn’t a scientific conclusion, but it’s accurate as to my experience and I believe to the experience of others. Whenever anybody asks me how it was I usually share the “five stages” because that’s honestly how I felt. So here they are. The Five Stages of a Deployment. As I see it.

1. Denial

Maybe it’s because you haven’t taken it all in yet, but the first few days of a deployment you actually feel as if it’s going to be easy. At first glance around you begin to tell yourself, “This isn’t that bad.” You begin to feel as if the time will go by before you can say, “this sucks…” And for a few weeks you actually believe yourself.

2. Depression

Welcome to reality. This is where you realize you were wrong, it is that bad and you’ve just begun. Days start crawling. You start looking ahead to the time you leave and realize how far away it is. You hang your head and try to focus on your job….anything to get your mind off the people you miss and the number of days until you see them again.

3. Acceptance

Sooner or later we, as humans, become accustomed to whatever we are faced with, wherever we are. In the acceptance stage, which is the longest of the five stages, you come to accept the situation you’re in and decide to make the best of it. You feel like everything is going to be a-ok. Things aren’t that bad! The showers are dirty, but they could be worse. The food isn’t that bad. At least there’s a lot of down time. And hey, there’s email. You might even believe you actually like the place.

4. Confusion

Confusion sets in about 1 1/2 to 2 months out. You begin to realize your time is almost up, so you get excited. Yet you have to remind yourself you still have two more months, so try not to get excited. After awhile you don’t know how to feel. Should I be excited? Should I avoid the excitement so the time doesn’t start crawling? Personally…I did my best to avoid the excitement…but it wasn’t easy.

5. Joy

It’s over, and you’re on your way home. The last week of the deployment, including the travel home, is purely joyful. Good luck wiping the smile off your face. Anything can break, anything can go wrong, who cares. You don’t mind having to dump all your bags out for customs to sift through. You don’t mind having to travel 40 or more hours just to get home. Nothing matters. Soon you’ll be home and your smile shows it.

So there you go…the five stages of a deployment. If you have to deploy, expect them. Overall I’d say the deployment was a good thing. It was a good experience, it was good for me to save money, it was good for me to see that part of the world and work in that environment, it was good. I’m just glad to be home and done with it.