Talk to me about IA tours

[amaristella]

I don't remember what my last update was. DH had his IA tour confirmed but he has not negotiated follow on orders yet. I was surprised when he told me that the one he picked counts as a deployment and has all the financial "benefits" of a deployment. Is that common?

But seriously, I need someone to tell me more about how some of the social aspects work. Specifically...

A) How does it work for the family at home? Are you pretty much on your own as far as FRG/ombudsman type stuff is concerned? (this is Navy, btw)

B) How does it work emotionally for the service member who has never been away from his kid for that long before? Like, it just sucks but he works through it? I know that I can send care packages and pictures and videos and maybe arrange for Skype dates. Is there more that I should be thinking about?

C) How does it work for the kid? A is going to be a little over a year old when DH leaves. Behavior-wise and emotionally, should I expect to have issues with him at that age, or should it be pretty easy to redirect his attention? Do kids that age understand Skype conversations? Right now A still doesn't have a clue what's going on when we Skype with family.

[meltoine]

I can't really help with A or B, but 1yo are pretty easy to distract. DS1 didn't start really noticing MH's absences until 2.5/2.75.