By: Aaron
My Christina and I have been together now for over a year. We met out in the surrounding town of Ft. Hood on July 5th, 2008. We had been part of the same battalion for a while, but never actually spent time together before that night. I was having a run of bad luck with the opposite sex, much like she was. We met through a mutual friend, Dale, and immediately hit it off. She had been in Korea before making it to Fort Hood, and I had just earlier that year gotten back from my first tour overseas. Times were a little bleak for me, and the horizon was promising to be grander from that day forward. With both of us planning to PCS to Colorado, and time rolling down, every obstacle in the way was nothing more than a minor annoyance. I am currently on month 5 of my current tour to the middle east, and things are about as good as can be expected.
I work the Landing Zone (LZ) during the midnights, so I wake at about 1400 and go for a run. Get back to my room at 1500 or so, drink some water and have a cigarette. Around 1600, I start to get ready for my shower, and around 1700 I am getting ready to go get dinner, or breakfast for me at least. It took a while to get used to Mexican Food for breakfast. As I go to my office for the beginning of my shift, I plug my iPod into the speakers I have on my desk and put on Christina and My Playlist. 106 songs I have that make me think of her. It is amazing how much the small things make me miss her.
My version of midday hits when I start to get passengers and packages for movement around theater. Pax will roll in, and steadily start putting on movies with the TV and DVD player we provide in the terminal. As the themes change from action to drama, comedy, etc., I steadily get bored with watching the same movie a dozen times over, and eventually reach for my paper and pen, writing my thoughts out to send a letter off. There is little to say, since I talk to her at least once a day, or as often as the MWR allows me to call, but there are certain feelings that are hard to express over the phone. Christina is very open about how she misses me, and I tend to lean more on the supportive, optimistic side of the spectrum. There are days that are harder then others to get through, but I try to keep a level head and say that a year is not forever, and I will get to see her again.
As my day wears down, PAX are gone and boxes are sent off, I go to the MWR and give her a call. We talk about our days, give the good and bad sides of them, and talk about our futures. Talk about what to do with the savings we have, plan our eventual wedding, and make sure that all that we both need is taken care of. She talks to me about what I need in care packages, and I ask her about the monthly flowers she gets. (I purchased a year of flower deliveries from RedEnvelope.com (no longer exists). A wonderful site for deployed soldiers to shop for their ladies at home.) She tells me about how much she misses me, and I tell her about how much I miss her, we banter the occasional banality, and act as though we are really not apart.
The thing about Christina and my relationship is that we are not the typical couple. We, for the most part, treat this deployment as a good thing. We get a chance to work on our communication skills, save money for when we both ETS, and just generally get a taste of what life would be like if the other person was not around, and appreciate how much that other person fills the void we would have in our lives. We make things work, because we want this. We love one another so fully, completely, and truly, that nothing and nobody will keep us from being together. A word of advice for all the couples that are going through a deployment right now. If you see this deployment as “unfair,” “horrible,” “a trial,” then you will experience nothing but pain during your time apart. You have to keep constant communication, and utilize every form of communication. E-Mail, Snail Mail, phone… all of it. Share everything with your significant other. EVERYTHING that you can. Let them know they are missed. Do things for one another. Send them gifts. If you want it to work, it will. I am proof.
Aaron
