Do you have deployment behaviors that are now part of your normal life?

MAJ Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 18:20:33 -0400

Was thinking about this last night - in Afghanistan, we generally got casualties/rocket attacks between midnight-6AM, so I was obsessive about a few things to make sure that I at least got a little sleep, and I find I still do them now and it's become habit:

1) Eat/shave/shower before 6PM (never wait till morning or midnight chow if you can avoid it).

2) Kindle in place for movies. Bottle of water. All in place by 6:30-7PM so as to be able to sleep by 7:30-8PM.

3) Clothes ready. Whatever I need to put on is always staged so that I never have to look for anything.

4) All my gear (in CONUS it's cell phones and other BS) is also staged in one place so that it takes about 1 minute to have all my pockets filled.

Response by CW5 Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 16 at 2014 6:30 PM

CW5 Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 18:30:22 -0400

Sir, I can relate to what you describe, but I don't attribute it to deployment. Based on my military career, and probably my life in general, I do some of the same things:

1. I'm kind of a fanatic about sleep, always do my best to get eight hours every night. This is probably a result of the six years I worked at the Pentagon, during which I had to get up at 0330 every morning.

2. I have my clothes ready to go the night before the next day - every day - so that when I get up, I'm all set. No looking for underwear, socks, etc.

3. I pack all my "stuff' (including wallet, phone, pocket stuff) in my backpack, which I take with me to work every day.

All of this routine planning the night before allows me to move out quickly every morning.