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Family experiences DePLAYment during deployment and reintegration

  • Published
  • By Maj. Paul D. Baldwin
  • Air Mobility Command Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  No amount of patriotism can overcome the stress that deployments bring. I don't look forward to leaving my spouse and children for deployment; I'm sure you are no different.

August 18, 2009, my family dropped me off at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. I was on my way to the Horn of Africa for six months. Several weeks prior, we had talks with our three children (ages 10, 8 and 3 at the time) to prepare them for departure day. I tried to console and distract them with a few gifts. That plan seemed to work on my previous deployment, but not this time.

The Air Force knows deployments are difficult for families, and one reason it designated this the Year of the Air Force Family is to re-look at support programs and see what could be improved upon.

One program the Air Force Services Agency implemented this year for families of deployed members is DePLAYment, which kicked off while I was in Africa. When my wife heard about it in late 2009 and signed us up, we discovered we were eligible for free or reduced prices for base programs, classes and other activities.

Our two boys are active in sports, and my wife signed them up for hockey at the base youth center. Because she signed up for the DePLAYment program, we didn't have to pay the registration fee. Sure, I could have afforded it since we budget for their activities. But it made my day when my wife said how easy the youth center made it for her.

My family needs every positive interaction with the military it can get while I'm deployed. It was an example of the Air Force putting its money where its mouth is.

After I returned from my deployment in March, we continued to use our DePLAYment tags through this month. I believe our children were really honored this month, the Month of the Military Child. Through the program, our local base offered free tickets to the City Museum in St. Louis, as well as free tickets to Six Flags, to include lunch at no cost.

I'll never forget those trips. They meant more to me, because I really felt like the Air Force was saying 'thank you' to my entire family because of my deployment.

Since our first child was born almost 11 years ago, I've moved my family seven times and have been away from home 659 days. President Obama recently described how military life affects children.

"The children, especially, display tremendous strength and courage each day, bravely bearing the burden of having a loved one serving in harm's way," he said in a statement April 13. "They may move many times - across the nation and even around the world - as they grow up."

Because of these factors and so much more, programs like DePLAYment truly make a difference for families. The program runs through July 31. Eligible members can log on to http://www.myairforcelife.com to see if their installation is participating and find out where to pick up their tags.

I'll be moving my family again this summer. The assignment will be for one year, and then we'll move again. My family is resilient and will handle it well. As we look back on the time in our lives when I was deployed to Africa, I know we'll remember how the Air Force did what it could to help build our resilience and make my absence a little more bearable.