How many times have you deployed?

Godspeed, brother. Keep in touch with us.

You f$ rookie &$#!@. No I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Best of luck to you and stay safe/alive. Remember to pick as many brains out there as you can for knowledge. That applies to all of your career of course, but deployment knowledge and experience is especially valuable. Look out for your buddies. It's easy for people to get into bad downs, and if it happens to you, make sure you surround yourself with the people and leaders who will keep you up! Chaplains aren't only they're for religious support too.

be safe and thank you for your service

Europe? Pacific Rim?

SGM Erik Marquez, how the training is done matters. If training is mostly home station, and you spend a normal amount of time on the road (vs deployed and being shot at), then training does not count the same way it may for other units and services. Training for the units I was assigned to normally meant a lot of time on the road at the users facilities, supporting their training. I am not saying it counts the same, but time on the road is time on the road. I only bring up the point in response to Col Smallfields comment about metrics. If you are going to track metrics then track metrics that matter, like months in the combat zone, not "number of deployments" as the Col suggests. I am simply adding that time away from the family, even in the CONUS or n on Combat Zone location, is difficult for the family.

Should deployments to a Combat Zone count more? Depends on the "combat zone"; Qatar is not a "combat zone" in my opinion...no one is lobbing IDF over the walls in Qatar, but they are in AFG and IQ, but they get the same CZTE and Haz pay I got for being at Bagram or Kandahar or Balad or Bashur or Irbil. They still got deployment credit (and 3 beers a day), while I couldn't even buy a sports illustrated.

Not all deployments (or training) are created equal.

I agree, with the addition of type of deployment. For instance, deploying to a major base, such as Camp Leatherneck is significantly different than deploying to a patrol base. Spending a year with green beans coffee and wifi isn't much of a hardship in my opinion.

MOL says I have 12. 3270 says I have 13. All at least 6 months and no longer than 9. All a blur, but I have all my fingers and toes. Retire in less than 2 months. Semper Fi and out.

Awesome point Capt. Our deployments were for 1 long year at a time.