I'm with you, brother. Only about half of the TIS you have but I'm too many deployments deep, too many birthdays missed, too many date nights through a screen...

Sometimes I feel guilty for coming home when others didn't. Sometimes it's because I should be home but I'm sleeping at the office again... A day that got away from me. Or when I'm heading in to "get caught up" on the weekend and my little girl asks where I'm going.

Deployment goodbyes are routine, now. My wife knows the drill.

I'm still searching for the remedy. Leave the fast-track and dangerous assignments and head for a functional area outside of combat arms where life seems so much more comfortable?

Leave the Army altogether?

Keep. Grinding.

When it's time to hang up my boots in one year or ten, I want my family by my side. The Army is an important part of my life. My family is my life. I'll try to align my choices to that end and live a life worthy of the sacrit of our dead friends.

Hang tough, Sir. Shoot me a note if you want to talk.