You're going WHERE?

It was a Tuesday. Outside it was mid March in the Midwest, cool and sunny. Inside I cracked open a bottle of Pepsi in an attempt to wash way the still-there remnants of Monday-morning rust. It looked to be the start of another typical day in the land of government desk jobs.

My bosses' voice lofted over the wall, bracketing my attention. "K.C. I need to talk to you. In my office."

Hmmm. This was unusual. "OK, Mike." I removed my ID card from my computer, locking my screen against possible security violations, and took a long walk down the short hallway to the white-doored office. I wondered to myself, "What could he want that he needed to see me in his office for? Did I screw something up?" I knocked on the door frame and stepped inside.

"Go ahead and close the door, then take a seat."

A claxxon sounded in my ears. Any hope I had for this being a simple conversation was quickly vanishing. I followed his instructions and braced for impact.

"It seems that the guy we had slotted to deploy to Afghanistan from Ft. Lee has backed out. Something about not being able to find a dog sitter for a couple weeks of his proposed tour." I gave Mike a quizzical look at this. He rolled his eyes, nodded his head, and continued. "Leadership wants to know if you're still interested in going to Afghanistan this summer, and they need to know soon. The tour will be from July to January. That something you're still wanting to do?"

I gulped, completely taken off guard, and tried to stifle the huge grin breaking out across my face. Little more than a week ago I had been told that all the deployment opportunities had been filled for the next 18 months. I took a minute to re-orient myself to the world that was now upside down. "Ummm...yeah, I'm still interested," I croaked. "How soon do you need to know by?"

"Tomorrow," Mike said. "Go talk it over with your wife and let me know what you decide." I nodded assent and he turned to his computer, signaling an end to the exchange.

Right. My wife. She had agreed to let me volunteer, but I wasn't certain she would let me go through with it. I still get reminded time to time of how I made her a single mom during my 14 weeks of initial training for this job. I rose from the chair and left the office, wondering to myself how to broach the subject.

*****

That night my daughter had a soccer game. As we sat on the sideline watching 4 year olds play herd ball, my wife, Amanda, and I discussed the pros and cons. The money and experience would be great. The time away from the family would not. I'd be missing two birthday's for my kids, my mom's 60th birthday, my parent's 40th wedding anniversary, the first day of kindergarten, the first day of pre-school, Thanksgiving and Christmas, my own wedding anniversary, and possibly New Year's.

I asked Amanda, "Do you think you can do it? I don't want to go if you don't think you can make it." There was a long pause. Then slowly, eyes wet, she nodded.

After the game, we took the soccer player and her sisters out to eat. We ran into an old teacher of mine at the door who was also waiting for a table. He seemed like he wanted to sit with us so we could talk more, but we didn't invite him as I didn't want an audience when I made my kids cry. I hoped I didn't come off as rude.

After the pizza came, I told my girls that I'd be leaving in a few months, and wouldn't be back until next year. "Will it be like when you went to Virginia?", my Little One asked. I nodded, and added "But I'll be further away this time, and be gone for longer."

"How much longer", they asked? More than double. 6 months. And then they started to cry.

I had prepared myself for this, as it was inevitable, but it still wasn't easy. I comforted them, told them that it would still be a while before I leave, and that we have lots of time to have fun before then. I promised we'd get to go to the park and a baseball game, and several other activities the kids were concerned about. Still they cried. That's when I pulled out the secret weapon of all parents: bribery.

"You know girls, I'll probably make enough extra money that when we get back we can go to Disney World." The tears took a break, sniffles filling the space. "Really?" asked my oldest, Daughter Prime. I nodded. She considered this for a second, and started to smile. Exhibiting her ornery side, she asked, "Can you leave tomorrow?" I could only shake my head and laugh.

*****

So began my journey to Afghanistan. My hope for this blog is to capture the process of deployment and a picture of the war from a civilian perspective, to develop a good source of information for civilians that will be deploying in my footsteps, and to give my family and friends a way to keep up with me while I live on the far side of the world. Hopefully I can update a few times per week from now until the end of my deployment period in December, though I'll be posting more frequently in the near-term, as I'm playing catch up for the last few months. If there's anything you want me to talk about, let me know in the comments and I'll try and cover it for you. Topics coming up in the next few posts include more info about myself, who I work for, what I'll be doing, and the process of getting there.

Until next time. Out here.