Can you describe how you felt coming home from a deployment or combat?

I broke my femur in AIT so I was never deployed but coming back from basic training was exhilarating. My young children were happy to see me, but called me "sharon" I guess they had heard my hubby talking about "Sharon coming home". You feel different though, you have been torn down and built up again, and so there are some growing pains. Just be honest with your spouse that it will be an adjustment. We do have 2 sons that were deployed and returned a combined 11 times. So we have also talked about what returning actually felt like for them.

This was one of the greatest moments! The opportunity to see my spouse and children after being apart for 4, 8, 12, or 15 months (depending on the deployment). It was sometimes a little scary trying to reconnect with the kids because they were young for most of the deployments.

My unit sent me on a six day deployment to Forbes Field in Topeka, Kansas. I don't remember the particulars but it was heart wrenching to leave my babies!! It was only six days and I realize that many here have done longer deployments and more often, but I was leaving a 15 month old and a 2 month old for the first time, it was horrible!! Did my time, mission accomplished, and headed home. It was the biggest thrill to get home and have my oldest son throw himself at me off the couch!! And when I saw my youngest, I swear he had grown 2 inches!! I was so happy to be home!!

It was overwhelming at first but I was glad to be home!!!! No place like home

It was surreal. I was in an ad hoc unit in Afghanistan that ceased to exist when we left our FOB so I traveled back to home station as an individual. I didn’t know how to act without the fear of imminent death. It took me awhile to figure out how to be a husband again and how to be a part of a society that was completely oblivious to the pain and suffering that our warfighters were enduring daily in a place that no one cared about including those we were supposedly there to help and protect.

In short, glad to be home or back on base. Some deployments went great and enjoyed the time where we were. Others, couldnt wait to leave.

After Saigon was evacuated (I was a member of the Marine Security Guard detachment assigned to the embassy in Saigon) we were offered an opportunity to return to CONUS and be reassigned to a unit based on our primary MOS. Having seen the treatment of returning vets - home was northern California so meant SFO - and a very rough understanding of the developing refugee crisis, I declined and received orders for Asmara, Eritrea (then still Ethiopia) in the early months of their civil war for independence. I remained overseas for another two years and when my contract ended, took a “European out” and left active duty from our embassy in Brussels rather than return stateside for release. I bumped around Ireland for a couple of weeks before returning home. Arrived back home, got a job, an apartment, etc but felt totally out of place…. Still have some of those same feelings (out of place / being different) more than 45 years later. Some of my best of times these days is when I get to share a meal or beer(s) with Marines I served with or when I travel back to SE Asia and bump around the beaches or hiking trails in Vietnam. There’s nearly a sense of dread getting back on the airplane to return home.

As our return flight from Vietnam was approaching the San Francisco airport it became very quiet, no talking or chatting, an overwhelming eerily quiet exciting atmosphere engulfed us as everyone waited for the wheels to touch the runway. At the moment the wheels touched the runway we erupted in cheers and tears. I'll never forget the sweeping uncontrollable release as a years worth of emotion flooded my entire being.

Didn't see combat, was in Germany during desert storm and on wait list to deploy. Kept family informed. Was nice when we were able to go home.

I felt completely useless and not needed. The void of being needed daily was gone. It seemed like my entire purpose for living was gone. I love my family but I was in a very bad place. The fast pace of being deployed was left empty and was never filled again.