Written by Angela Caban

Adjusting to R&R after a 15 month deployment is not exactly easy. Just ask Army National Guard soldier Christopher Mariner. Christopher is 31 years old and has just returned from a 15 month deployment from Basra, Iraq. At such a young age he has already gone through 3 deployments throughout the last 9 years. “Some much needed R&R is in order; I am just not so sure what I am going to do with the spare time”. Christopher and his wife Nancy are just glad for him to be home, regardless of what they do now. Nancy, who has been married to Christopher for 6 years, is about done with all deployment brings. “Married for 6 years and separated for over half of that wasn’t our plan, but hey it’s the Army! We have been looking forward to this down time for some time now and I really don’t care what we do, honestly I think we could just stay in bed for the next 3 months and that would be just fine”.

Soldiers are trained to have a much higher sense of awareness and in this case getting used to R&R can take somewhat of an adjustment. “You are trained to be so alert during war that it really takes some time to break the habit, so relaxing is something that does not come easy”. But this is also that can be hard on the spouse and family members. When a soldier had returned from either a deployment or separation, there are many stresses that factor into the overall transition of being home. The best advice, be patient and learn to let things go on their own. You can’t expect for everything to go right back to place, so don’t add an additional stress and just take it one day at a time.

Today Christopher and his wife are doing just that. “One day at a time works best for us. I don’t want Chris to feel obligated to rush into anything, he needs his time to rest and keep a relaxed mind. I will just have to take care of things around here for a little while longer. And it doesn’t bug me much; I have my hero back home!”