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!

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