Well, my son left Ft. Benning and went to Ft. Hood. A week later and we find out that in Apr. he is to go to Iraq. Please keep my son in your thoughts. I had prayed that this would be long in coming. It seems that isn't to be so. Now I pray that he will be kept safe and sent back home soon to us.

That is quick but pretty much to be expected unfortunately. Is he going as a replacement or is the entire brigade deploying at the same time? My son did that at Ft. Stewart. He stayed there for maybe six weeks and then went to Iraq as a replacement. The nice thing was that he only had to do an eight month deployment.

Hi Mom of Darien,
My son also was deployed immediately after reporting to his duty station at Fort Bragg. He was told within the first week (in November) that he would deploy in January. There is no getting ready for it. I think you are on the right track. Communication seems to be pretty good from Iraq from what I've read. My son is in Kuwait and in communications so has kept us pretty fairly well informed. We can assure ourselves that the Army has made soldiers of them by this point and they are prepared as they can be. I'll add Darian to my prayers as well. Come here anytime. If you read on down the posts, you will see where I had my meltdown right before my son left. Everyone here assured me it is normal and may come and go. I am proud of my son and support him 100%; just had a Mom kind of day. lol
Hugs,
Melanie

Oh, I do know that. Yeah, It was expected just not so quickly. My son will be there I believe until January. A long time to go without seeing him. Especially during Christmas. It will be the longest that he will have been away from me his whole life. He says he's ready. Lol, Wish I was. Oh yeah, my family, we pray everyday for all our sodier boys to come home. Yellow ribbons around the trees and a candle in the window to light their way home.