Nearing the end of another deployment

Jon sums up his thoughts and feelings as this deployment nears an end.

"I recall the last two months of my deployment in 2006, and I have a vague memory that any variation from the routine seemed like a cataclysmic crisis, energy levels had sunk to the level where walking and talking seemed about all I could do, forget about creative thought. That's sort of how it is now. It's not that life is so tough; it's just that many of the fundamental meaningfulnesses of every day life (the preservation of which is why we're here in the first place) cannot be felt here. This is not a negative judgment on the country to which we are deployed, this is an acknowledgement that wherever it is, it is not “home,” it is not where our hearts reside. Over time, this distance from our “hearts” attacks the very center of individual significance, and simultaneously degrades any confidence that what we are accomplishing is of any note. This bludgeoning effect to the psyche appears to more dramatically impact the staffs (who are less physically engaged) than those who are actively executing the missions; a wearying of the body that in turn grinds down the capacity to overcome complacency is the sentence on those tasked with a more physical mission. The strength of character that drives individuals forward in this environment, so that they overcome these and many other impediments to excellence in accomplishing mundane, arduous, and downright almost impossible tasks, is today fairly rare--though providentially, corporately and against significant odds, success here is more universal than the rarity of strength of character would suggest. Whether one has this strength of character within them or not, it can still be observed and noted in others. I think back to previous conflicts, where individuals were in physical confrontation with the enemy and/or the enemies' devices for years at a time, and their accomplishments, in the absence of technology, often without popular support, and little enough of the very essentials of life, seem to throw much of what we've done here into a somewhat pale light. It is not without reason that the generation that persevered to achieve victory in WWII is called "great." Even greater, in many ways, though less acknowledged, were those engaged in the Vietnamese and Korean conflicts, who lacked the support of their own nation, in fact faced adversity from the enemy and at home, and yet achieved victory in almost every tactical conflict in which they were engaged (the conflicts were lost operationally and strategically). This, then, is the state I'm in as my deployment nears its end. Semper Fi, Jarhedjon"