Read this report on this reservist who is about to lose his job and house due to numerous (his fifth) deployments. This reservist and his wife have written to everyone under the sun who could possibly help in deferring his deployment or delay it, but so far to no avail.

Having only been been informed 2 days prior to my deployment and also being on deployment for more than a year, I understand where he's coming from. I got really lucky in getting my current job and not have to depend on active duty tours in order to get the bills paid. Also, for the first time in my life, I'm finally making more (not too much) than what I would had I stayed in active duty.

Some of the people that I knew from my deployment have already left military duty altogether, while others are on their second or third deployment overseas. I got myself involved with this new unit that pretty much doesn't have anything to do with deployments in the current theater of war.

So what do I have to complain about?

I've got a 6+ months long officer training that I've got to get out of the way or risk losing my security clearance and commission, to which, thanks to my employer, I got it delayed because my employer would like for me to, due to the recent transfer. I've also got the baby thing to do....so I have no idea what is going to happen. My employer is already not feeling too happy with the amount of time already spent away from my work (5 days in April...and possibly 11 days sometimes this month), even though legally they cannot fire me for performing reserve duties, promotions and other similar perks may be just that much more diffucult.

I never joined the military in the hopes of getting a retirement check every month when I turn 65, despite of all the bad things that I've experienced, I've also been very lucky at getting opportunities to be paid to use my native language, and to be able to be granted the clearance so that I could use that also in my day job. It's a hard call either way on whether or not to just resign my commission altogether. Now I've got as stable of a life as I could have with my GF and the pets, it's just so hard to pack up again and leave for months at a time. Yes, it's important to serve your country and most of all, fulfill your obligations, but there are also heavy prices to pay which cannot be ignored.