Just depends on what branch and what the person does. Some people in the military work in the clinic on base and never ever tdy or deploy (or in IT or finance, etc). Army infantry, sappers etc are still routinely deploying 9 months at a time. Air Force has moved to 4-6 month deployments, depending on what you do you’ll tdy for a week or 2 or 4-8 in between those deployments.

For me that’s the exhausting part. My spouse has set deployments but then constantly tdys in between with little notice for varying amounts of time. Home for 1 week gone for 3, back for 2 gone another 1, supposed to be home but another tdy gets tacked on so now it’s another 2 weeks. But I have my own identity, like most of the other people I know and although Im currently a student I was previously active in the workforce and will be a biochemist in a year. Sad a small minority who makes it their identity makes the rest of us look terrible.

Sounds like person above cousin had some non deploying position that sent them for training on occasion. I’d say that’s the bulk of the air force but doesn’t account for sigint or special forces. So it’s really pretty ridiculous for anyone to paint it all with the same brush.