Before I was in the military I really thought a military deployment was the way Hollywood portrays it. What do you think of when you hear the word military deployment? What else do you have to go by if you don’t see or hear any other stories than what the news and Hollywood tell you. I quickly learned there are so many types of deployments, just within the Air Force, not to mention all the other branches of the military.
The Air Force is deploying people in so many different places all over the world. Not just Iraq and Afghanistan. And sometimes the Air Force sends people in big groups from one base and other times they pick and choose people to fill in where needed. The Air Force and the Army made an agreement to help the war effort where they would take Air Force members and use their specific skills for an Army deployment.
Military deployment
I knew I would likely deploy within the first four years of being in the military. And it probably would have happened before the 2-year mark if our unit had not been assigned to help with the emergency relief effort. Which technically I did deploy for. I spent about two weeks in Florida helping with Hurricane Ike support. The Hurricane ended up going to Texas and only caused minimal damage, so there wasn’t a lot needed in the way of support from the Federal Government. The State has to ask the Federal Government for help before they can take action.
Once our unit was released from the emergency relief effort support tasking for deployments started coming. It was only a matter of time before it was time for me to go. I had my fingers crossed I would get a “good” deployment, like going to Manas, Kyrgyzstan, or Al Udied.
Instead, not only did I get selected to go to Afghanistan. I also found out I would be on one of those deployments helping the Army out. I would deploy with the Army while serving in the Air Force. There I got a taste of what it was like to be in the Army and I got a mission that was very different than a typical Air Force deployment.
Air Force Civil Engineers
As a Civil Engineer our job is to help maintain the base. We stay on the base and sometimes we go from larger bases to smaller bases to help the smaller bases with the various facility-type issues since each base overseas doesn’t have a Civil Engineering Squadron.
In the Army, they have Civil Engineers too. But their Civil Engineers are focused on moving the Army forward. The Army has a very different mission from the Air Force. An Air Force Civil Engineering Squadron is focused on supporting the Flight Line. Supporting the flight line means supporting all the facilities required to make operations take place. Basically, we set up the Base, maintain and run the Air Field. The Army is often moving toward a destination or tactical spot. That makes our training very different. And with the wars that were fought in Afghanistan and Iraq having large bases with infrastructure, including airfields, having Air Force Civil Engineering support was very important.
There are so many different types of deployments.
There is so much more to cover when talking about different types of deployment. I vaguely touched on humanitarian missions, but there is a whole lot more to it. There are also deployments for the Army, Marines, Navy, and Coast Guard. I also don’t want to forget the many Civilian Government Agencies out on the front lines serving our country. Working to help with the war effort.

This series has people who have done so many different assignments. I hope you can learn about what we are doing and where we are going and have gone. No two stories are the same. Even if we went to the same place and had the same mission. All of us have a unique story to tell.
I’d love to hear what deployments have you experienced? Either personally or have just heard about it. Comment Below. And if you have a story you want to share about a deployment you can fill out this survey or contact me via email (airmantomom [at] gmail [dot] com) with any ideas you have.
This is Day 2 of 31 Days of Deployment Stories series. If you want to start with day one click here.
Yesterday I talked about why I’m sharing deployment stories, tomorrow I will share my deployment story.

Thank you for your service to our country, and for sharing your story. I hope that you have a wonderful day!
Thank you for reading.
God bless you for your service. And thank you for sharing as I am not aware about all of the different types of deployments.
I wasn’t until I joined the military so it makes sense. I’m glad I could share a part of my story with you!
It’s so interesting hearing about your deployment and I didn’t realize there were so many types of deployment. You are amazing and I appreciate your service to our country.
Many blessings, dear Amanda! xo
You will have to come back tomorrow when I share my actual deployment experience. Thanks for reading.
Do you ever miss the military?
I miss parts of it. I got to do some pretty cool things when I was in and have amazing experiences. There is always good and bad. I’m glad I chose to leave after having kids. It would have made it even harder to be overseas and leaving behind my boys.
Thank You for your service! I learned so much about deployment from this post.
I’m happy to share my experience. I’m so glad you learned something from it. 🙂
Thank you for sharing and enlightening us on the many different deployments. I was completely unaware and see from reading that there is so much more that cannot possibly be covered in this one story. God Bless you and thank you for your service. 🙏🏻❤️🙏🏻