Explain to me...

[piper84]

the difference between a deployment and a TDY, please. Also, I've seen ladies on this board mention unaccompanied assignments. Being a newbie, I was under the impression that "gone" is "gone" but I'm quickly seeing that's not the case!

Are unaccompanied assignments common? What exactly does this mean? Your spouse will move locations and you're not allowed to come with?

[pesci]

TDYs are usually shorter than deployments. It can be for school, training, or humanitarian-type jobs. Deployments are in more hostile areas.

A lot of service members volunteer for short tours. Usually they are unaccompanied, but depending on the base and other factors, you may be able to make it an accompanied 2 year tour. My husband is about to go on a short tour (1 year). It was non-vol and unaccompanied. We don't have the option to tag along if we wanted to. I am bummed, but we have a sweet follow-on assignment afterwards to look forward to.

[meltoine]

TDYs are between 1 day and six months long. Usually short - a week or two. They can be for training, medical exams, etc.

An unaccompanied tour is a duty station where families are not allowed. South Korea is sometimes an unaccompanied tour. They're not super common, but not uncommon either.

A deployment is an unaccompanied tour to a combat zone.

[Deleted]

Sept 26, 2012 11:39:41 GMT -5 meltoine said:

TDYs are between 1 day and six months long. Usually short - a week or two. They can be for training, medical exams, etc.

An unaccompanied tour is a duty station where families are not allowed. South Korea is sometimes an unaccompanied tour. They're not super common, but not uncommon either.

A deployment is an unaccompanied tour to a combat zone.

The AF actually has "365-day TDYs" that are technically more like deployments (members usually go to hostile areas) but the positions aren't back-filled at home, so the home unit will have to operate a man down for a year.

But yeah, generally speaking TDYs are short, and are for purposes other than combat.

Deployments in the AF are usually 6 months long, but can be longer or shorter.

Remote tours are at least 270 days, and can be either accompanied or unaccompanied, and are to places like Korea, Saudi Arabia, etc. I know a lot of guys who have done "unaccompanied" tours to Korea, but have taken their families non-command-sponsored, and have been fine.

[crimewatcher]

Well I'm late and it seems you've gotten your answer andall the ladies are right with TDYs. But just in case you want more info... it stands for Temporary Duty (some add Yonder). H usually refers to them as business efforts because of his airframe.

The other posters are right when they say non-combat area. My H has been TDY all over the US and World (ie. Alaska, California, Florida, Maine, DC, North Dakota, Greece, Spain, Korea and the list goes on and on). For him they have ranged from 5-60days.

I know of 2 people whom have gotten/be given remote tours. 1 Army and 1 AF. For the Air Force person he was pretty high ranking (Chief Master Sgt.) so he didn't have a lot of options for assignments. He was given the option to go to Korea for 1 year without his Family or 2 years with his family. He picked 1 year... and will get a 2 or 3 week R&R. He was given a follow on assignment of Dover, so his family decided to move there and get settled (put their kids in school) before he joins them next year.
I don't know the story of the Army guy he is one of H's buddies. But I do know he wasn't given the option to take his family so his wife and 2 daughters (3months and 4years) stayed stateside.

[cizzle]

Hmm, I'm not sure deployment is always to a combat zone... my husband deployed to Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. It was considered a deployment, Operation Unified Response.

[basilosaurus]

My understanding is that you actually can go TDY to a combat zone, like, say, to some parts of SE Asia or Africa. So, edges can be blurred.

But, other than that, I would have said exactly what villainv said.

Also, I accompanied my H on an unaccompanied tour, for about 1/3 of the time he was there There's some strategy involved. Some locations don't allow any accompanied, like where he was, but an unaccompanied tour in other parts of Korea is 1 year instead of 2 if accompanied is available. Going to a "hardship" location gives you preference coming out of there (officers don't find out follow on tours ahead of time).

As for details of 365 vs 1 year vs short tour, again I say just wait. You have a few years before you ever have to worry about this stuff. Don't overwhelm yourself now. It's going to be hard enough to adjust to not working in a rural town during his training. Trust me.

[NomadicMama]

My DH has gone TDYmto combat zones twice. One trip was about three weeks, the other was two. He was tax-free for the month with both of those trips.

To put it in civilian terms, TDY is comparable to a business trip. The purpose and length is just as varies as the reasons for a civilian's business trip. Deployment, generally speaking, is often bigger troop movement to an area of conflict or distress, or in support of a military or humanitarian effort. But for every "rule" there are bound to be all sorts of exceptions.

When I was emailing my DH back when we first "met" (online), he was deployed to Afghanaland. I asked something about being stationed in Afghanistan. He politely corrected me. His duty station (thus the verb) was Andrews Air Force Base, but he was deployed to Afghanistan. Duly noted.

While the lines seem to be blurring due to joint bases, branches call their installations different things. The Army has posts, the Air Force has bases, the Marine Corps has camps and the Navy has bases and stations. (My DH is Army--if I have any of these terms wrong, feel free to chime in with the correct one!). As an Army family, we talk about living on post or off post, where as an Air Force family would talk about on base and off base housing. Not exactly what you asked about, but I've found being aware of terminology helpful.

[piper84]

Thanks for all the info! Very helpful...

...and Sibil, I agree. No point in overwhelming myself now. Can you tell I'm already worrying about all these things?!

[basilosaurus]

Are you normally a worrier? Or are you just really analytical? I don't worry, but I have always wanted to have all the information. I think you said you're an engineer, so I'd imagine you have some of those same tendencies.

[piper84]

Sept 27, 2012 16:16:02 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

Are you normally a worrier? Or are you just really analytical? I don't worry, but I have always wanted to have all the information. I think you said you're an engineer, so I'd imagine you have some of those same tendencies.

Yes, I am an engineer. I guess I'm not so much as a worrier as I am an analyzer. I feel like my mind is always going and I'm always thinking... not always a good thing Like you said, I think I'm trying to get all the information possible.

[bigmamma]

What branch is the service member? each service has its own definition.