a news article

For the life of me, I can't tell you what possessed me to search the internet for this article. But I feel like I ought to post it here, just because. I've been talking so much about the deployment, here's some actual news coverage.

NORFOLK, VA. (MyFox Hampton Roads) -- At Naval Station Norfolk Wednesday, nearly 3-thousand sailors with the Nassau Expeditionary Strike Group deployed to the 5th and 6th fleet areas of operation.

"Very nervous, very emotional, gonna miss him, yeah gonna miss him," said Corrine.

"He made it back just in time for her to be born and now she turned a year old in December and he's leaving again," said Michelle.

The guided missile destroyer USS Bulkeley was first to leave port, followed by the USS Ross and then the amphibious assault ship USS Nassau. USS Nashville, also part of the Nassau Expeditionary Strike Group is expected to get underway Thursday due to an engine problem. A little more than a year ago, the Nashville helped in the non-combative evacuation of more than two thousand Americans from Lebanon.

"You never quite do exactly what you expect to do before you leave. It's like the cop on the beat, when you're there you can make much more of a difference than having to travel to wherever it is you need to be," said Captain Dewolfe H. Miller III, Commanding Officer of the USS Nashville.

Amphibious ships like the Nashville are supposed to be transporting Marines, but last month the Marine Expeditionary Unit received orders to get a different ride to Afghanistan.

"Certainly one of our missions is to transport Marines, but there's just so many other things that we do. The search and rescue capability the medical capability that we all bring," said Captain Robert G. Lineberry, Commodore, Nassau Strike Group.

As these men and women wait to see what this deployment will bring, their loved ones wait patiently back at home.

Speak for yourselves. I'm not "waiting patiently." I'm fucking pissed! You assholes had no idea what the hell was going on, couldn't give anyone a solid date until just a few days before launch!

So no, I am not "waiting patiently." I'm just waiting. Waiting to gain some sense of normalcy now that there is none. Waiting to be able to live the life he and I have been imagining, that has been put off repeatedly because of the demands of the military.

Fuck that "patient" bullshit.