An overwhelming majority of commenters on this thread agree that families have it tougher when a soldier deploys. I have to agree. I remember my first tour in Korea and it was a bloody cake walk. Essentially guys on deployment away from their families simply revert to being little boys. We just sort of carouse and pass the time aimlessly without much conscious thought. EvilPidge (updates are a good thing you tubby bitch!) and I spent most of a year playing Doom and X-wing while totally drunk.

     Meanwhile my wife was raising my daughter and dealing with family issues that boggle the mind (Hi Joe!). She had little in the way of support while on my end of things the Army looked after my every need and saw to it that I had food, shelter, and money to buy cheap Korea soju with at the KATUSA snack bar.

     Back at the Korean ranch I am pretty sure me and Pidge only bothered locking our door 10 times in a year. It was completely normal to wake up and see some random soldier sitting in front of Pidge's computer blowing away TIE fighters and sending demons screaming to their ends with a double-barrel shotgun. All in all, we had the easy bit to say the least.