[Danew_377]

Speaking on what the original title of this thread was...

My life has been affected by this for sure. If you know anything about the military then we have to move every few years unless you get lucky and are allowed to stay in the same region. I am Navy and have been for 16 years now. My wife and I agreed to be on a geobatchelor tour in Japan. I would be out here and she would be able to come and go from Japan as she pleased as long as I was inport. That was in 2019 when I was selected for orders.

Fast forward to 2020 and when covid really became a thing, decisions got hard. I had to separate from my family because of where I was to head to in March of this year. My family was left in New York and I had to drive across country for a school. When I was due to leave the school in late April, I couldn't just leave because my orders weren't modified due to the national situation. I was stuck in San Diego for another seven weeks waiting to be released. Once I finally was, I had to drive back to New York and after nine days I was on a flight heading to Japan.

Usually I would be looking forward to Christmas time to fly back home, but that would mean taking 45 days of leave( two weeks SIP, two weeks leave, and two more weeks SIP) just to be with family for a meaningful period of time. Because of a choice made well before this, I could go my entire tour of two years without seeing my two year old daughter and 10 month old son.

This situation sucks for everyone and regardless of how you feel concerning this life-altering poopery we should all look for better times. Appreciate the time you get to spend with your loved ones.