Military Deployments & Homefront Responsibilities

This episode focuses on military deployments regarding young first and second term military service members. What I learned not only early in my career, but later in my career and today as a Retired Marine, young service members often depart for deployment with important tasks left incomplete on the homefront. They simply focus intensely on unit responsibilities and making sure they display standout performances toward leadership. However, because of such intense focus on unit responsibilities, important homefront tasks get placed on the backburner and then crammed and jammed together at the last minute to get them done. Trust me, my first deployment involved me having to go to my squad leader and ask for a day off because I failed to complete a couple of important tasks involving financial matters. I knew and expected to be chewed out but I was fortunate that I was given the time off to complete my affairs. 

Well, just recently, I listened to several Airmen at Nellis AFB speak about homefront tasks they needed to complete prior to departing for deployment. What was interesting is that they all talked more about unit priorities over family priorities and being a little behind on family matters. I can assure you that unit priorities are going to get done no matter what, so the need to focus on them so intensely is not as concerning because leadership will drive mission accomplishment period. Let's us as leaders, whether in-service or retired teach our young Warriors how to effect family priorities before deployment. We can do this by ensuring our young service members have a detailed daily homefront checklist put together and immediate execution of the checklist started within 24 hours of learning that the unit is going on deployment on this projected date. I understand that not every home operates the same, so the checklist should be dedicated to each respective household and completed in a step-by-step fashion.

At the end of the day, ensuring our young service men and women and their families are prepared for deployment is critical and leave no doubt that their respective homefront is left safe and secure prior to deployment!    

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Hey, hey, what's up out there again, everybody? I'm your host, Greg Mack of the You Better Plan on It Podcast. You can catch me every Tuesday at 12 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on many of your favorite podcast sites. You can also follow me by going to You Better Plan On It Podcast.buzzsprout.com, and I really would appreciate it. Now with that said, let's go ahead and move forward with today's topic, and that's involving military deployments and the home front responsibility. Again, military deployments and the home front responsibility. Now, this topic is very near and dear to my heart because why? I spent 22 years of my life in the United States Marine Corps. And I went on a number of deployments during my time in. And that ranges from just a 30-day simple field deployment where you go out and get try to maximize your training up to 15 to 18 months worth of deployments back in the days when I went through. And the reason why this is important is I want to focus on units that are going on deployment and taking care of your home front responsibilities prior to deployment. And the reason why this is very important is I'm going to target those first-term military service members as well as those second-term military service members who are just beginning their second four-year term or three-year term. And the importance of this for you is I've had a chance to watch deployments, especially since I've been retired. See how deployments go and talk to people who are going on deployments. And I try to talk to the really young military service members that are going on deployments. Again, those first-term, second-term deployers out there, those warriors. And then entails that leadership giving you a checklist of everything that you're going to do. But it's like being having your hand held when it's a child. All this great leadership directing your path from day one all the way through the deployment. So you know what he or she needs to do to get yourself prepared. Well, here's the problem with young military service members. It's the home front. It is the home front. And the reason why it's the home front is because as a military service member, and I can tell you this from experience, you are so dynamically focused on making sure that you have your house in order as far as what the unit wants you to do, and you kind of slip on making sure things at home are done, or you wait until the last possible second to get it done. You know, and then you got to come to me, the gunner saw on the mass on your platoon, saw your squad leader, and say, Hey, uh, I need to see if I can take some time off. I forgot to do this, this, and this, and I need to see if I can run home and get this done. Now you see where leadership can get ankled up and really let you have it for being laxadaisical on the things you need to do at home. So, this is what I need you to do. If you fall into that first and second term military service member, and you have very little to no experience as far as deployments go, I need you to make a plan. And that's where the podcast goes, you better plan on it. Because we have got to do a better job of ensuring our young military service members are prepared for deployment as far as the home front goes. Because I just witnessed, you know, over here at the Nellis Air Force Base, there's some young airmen out there, you know, trying to get stuff done at the ninth hour for their families. When you uh have seniority and you've been doing this for a while, it is so easy for you to just go and do it and you know exactly what you need to do. Well, when it comes to young service members in those first and second terms of service, they factor in. I have to get this done because the unit says I have to get this done, and I need to get the home front stuff done. But when you come home, you're spending time with your family and running around doing the things you need to do. But where you fail at or where you slip up at a little bit is you actually don't focus as much on the home front as you need to. Because you're trying to have as much fun as you can before you go on deployment. And you know, during that workup cycle, you may have to go in and do a few days here and a few days there, or a 30-day field-off or something. Anything can come up depending on what type of unit you're in, where you have to leave the family and go out and get the training in, the necessary training during the workups, to include getting ready to load that ship or that aircraft to get ready to get out of Dodge. So here's what I'm saying to you, young men and women. The first day that you find out that you're going on a deployment, and I don't care how small or big the deployment is, but especially if you're deploying where you're going to be gone beyond six months, you need to initiate plan A period for your household. The reason why I don't focus so much on you needing to concern yourselves with the unit side is because you're going to get told by everybody above you how this thing's gonna go, and they're going to orchestrate it down to the finest dime until it's time for you to get out of Dodge and also when it's time for you to come back home. Does not matter. They're gonna take care of business because that's how it works. But as far as your home front goes, I need you to make a checklist. This is your plan of action, your daily plan of action. Everything that you need to do from day one until it's time for you to deploy. It is too critical for you not to have a plan in place at home from day one. I cannot afford you, and you cannot afford you, to wait until there's a couple weeks left before you go to try to cram everything in. And that's what young military service members do. And I've watched it and witnessed it, and yes, I've chewed some folks out because they needed it. You know, because in turn, people above me are going to chew me out, just like many of you get some seniority have been through as well. You get a little chew out session because some of your Marines or sailors or soldiers are lacking in what they were supposed to do at home. So now you got to pick up the ball and push the pace with them. So if you are a spouse, significant other partner out there, and your significant other partner spouse comes on to tell you that, hey, we got deployment orders, and this is when we're projected to depart. I need the family to get together. If you are a friend, a loved one, if you fit into that person's life that's in the military, it's going to deployment, help them sit down and create an immediate and effective plan to make sure all of your household responsibilities are in order and you're not doing things at the ninth hour. Young military service members tend to wait because they're so tied up with trying to satisfy what your unit wants you to do that you fail in taking care of your family responsibilities. If you are a single individual, it's a lot easier when you live in the barracks or you have a couple of roommates out in town, that kind of thing, because it's just you and you don't have so much to worry about when it's just you, but those that are service members with young families, you need to step it up a notch. I want you to sit down on your computer, your iPad, piece of paper, make a checklist of everything you need to do. Well, what you're gonna do first is for your initial step in the plan, is go sit down with that person that's seen you to you, that's been on a couple of deployments, and say, hey, as far as your checklist at home, what do you do exactly? Ask him for a copy of it, him or her. Get a copy of what they do exactly. And instead of you waiting to the ninth hour, have something in place that you want to do every single day until it's time to get going on that deployment so that your significant other spouse or partner back at home can say, We got this. We got our house in order and we're ready to go. Because I'm telling you, I've witnessed it time and time again, and I just witnessed it. These guys uh from Nellis Air Force Base over here in Nevada going on deployment, and you know, I'm at the PX. And I hear these young airmen talking about, oh man, I gotta get this done before I go, man. I should have had it done a few weeks ago. And when you hear the word a few weeks ago, that tells you, yes, they're inexperienced. And as a senior leader, you know, I was a question kind of guy. Hey, did you get this trash done? Did you get this stuff done for your family? Now, granted, the leadership is going to guide you to make sure you take care of home front responsibilities, but they're not going to be at your home to tell you every single thing that you need to do. You know, they don't have that kind of authority to just go into your home and just start directing you. So they try to guide you. But if you don't take that guidance and use it by being the person in charge of your responsibilities in your home front, then you're going to have some failures. And I'm telling you this because even though I was a young single Marine, my very first deployment, I had several things to do on my home front. And you know what I did? I kind of waited because I was so focused and psyched out on what Gunny and Staff Sergeant and Sergeant was telling me to do that the young Lance Corporal was focused on if I don't get this unit stuff done, then I'll be in even more trouble and they're going to chew me out. And I had a couple of chew out sessions for certain things. But you know, as far as things that I need to do for myself from a personal perspective, I was lacking on, and I had to go to my squad leader and ask if I could have a day to try to get things done. And yes, I got lit into, and rightfully so. And many of you have too. So if you're out there, even if you're a mom or dad to a young military service member, a grandparent or somebody, and you know, ask them, talk to them, tell them, hey, did you get this done? Because I'm telling you right now, many of them are going to say, Oh man, I forgot to do this, I forgot to do that. And it's that ninth hour thing, and now you failed to do certain things before you, you know, you get out of there, and now you're on the deployment trying to make those calls and emails and messages back to the family to try to get things done, especially if you have a young spouse and young children, and you're relying on that inexperience in the home front because that person doesn't know what to do. Now she's got to go to the command and ask questions. That makes you look bad as somebody who's supposed to be responsible for your household. Many of us have been there and many of us have done that. Now, I was fortunate because I was not married early in my career, but I got a chance to watch my buddies go into paddock mode. Man, I know a gun said we need to get this done, man, but I was so focused on trying to get this stuff done for the unit. I didn't get this done at home. You know why you didn't get it done at home? A lot of times when you're going on a deployment, it's all about I'm gonna have as much fun as I can before I go because I don't know if I'm gonna make it back. And that is just the cutthroat way of putting it. You don't know if you're gonna make it back from a deployment. You have no idea. You know? That's why it's all about getting that prayer in every day. Every single day. Talking to the good Lord and saying, hey, you know, Lord, I'm going on this deployment and I expect to make it back. We all expect to make it back. But in the event you don't, did you leave your family, loved ones and friends, in the best possible position you could leave them in, especially your young families. And your young military service members, for those of you that are older service members that are still in, or if you're retired, have a conversation with these young men and women and say, hey, if you are going on deployment, I need you to do this, this, and this. You need a daily plan of action that's effective and will make the difference. And if you have to repeat something that you didn't get done or something that you did get done, then so be it. Just make sure it's done daily and effectively to the greatest extent possible so that when it's time to go on deployment, you're not stressed about I didn't get this done. Because you know who you're not gonna tell, you're not gonna tell your leadership, you're gonna tell your buddies that's on your level, that lower level of rank, man, I did not get this done. And they're gonna be telling you the same thing, and you're gonna be trying to figure out how to do this. So, yeah, you got you'll have a little bit of computer access and maybe even get a chance to use the phones when you're on these ships and things going across there, or you stop somewhere in specific, and you're trying to get calls in to tell your wife, your partner, your significant other, hey, I need you to go do this. Now there's absolute stress. So all the way to the combat zone or wherever you're going, you're stressed out because there's a couple different things that's significant, and it's usually not minor things, it's things that really are important. And it may not be super significant, but it's important enough that you left them hanging and now you're trying to figure out how to get a message back, or you get that message back, and they gotta go do it. And that's not fair. So I'm telling you, as a senior, enlisted, retired military service member from the United States Marine Corps, for those of you that are still in, that's got that leadership, for those of you that are even out, and you have family members and friends and loved ones, and you know they're going on deployment. I challenge you to have a conversation with hey warrior, did you get this done? You know, because when I was in, this is what I had, or I'm in, you know, it doesn't matter. Please help them find their way before they go. Because there are a number of partners and spouses and wives and husbands back in the rear right now on some of these folks that are gone on deployment, and I guarantee you, it's a number of them. And they're in their first or second term of service. There's things that they didn't get done that they expected to get done, but they procrastinated because they focus so much on what the unit wanted them to do, and I gotta have this kind of fun before I go, and then at the ninth hour, you're scratching your head, going, Wow, I didn't get this done. So please make sure you do your part. Get it done, put a plan in place, create your own checklist, have your leadership review that checklist. Don't be afraid to go to somebody ahead of you, above you, and say, Hey, can you take a look at this checklist? I know we're supposed to do certain things on the home front, but I have this, this, and this, this a little different than these folks. Especially you got children, maybe your child is autistic in some way, maybe your child's handicapped in some way. You need to be on your P's and Q's to get this done. And this is not something I'm telling you this because it just happens all the time. It don't happen to a huge number of people, but it happens to a lot more than you think. And many of us have born witness to it, and we've been a part of it, been involved in it, or we actually went through it. I went through it. I just happened to be single, so it made it a lot easy. But I'm telling you today, get a plan in place as soon as you learn that you're going on a deployment, young men and women, within 24 hours, you should already be saying, okay, this is what I need to do at home, because you're going to be guided as far as what you need to do for the command and for your unit. But what do you need to do at home to make sure you are safe and secure in your families in the same manner? So that if something should happen to you, and whether it does or not, everything's prepared, your house is in order. So thank you for your time. Again, you can follow me at you betterplan on the podcast.budsprout.com. I would definitely appreciate you following me and checking it out. I got many more great stories, challenges, and resources to give to you to make sure that we all are a part of something bigger than ourselves. God bless you. Take care of yourselves and stay ready at all times. And always remember a plan that succeeds is a plan that can fulfill one's need. God bless you. Take care of yourselves out there, and we'll chat again soon. Hoorah, and have a good one.