How does it work getting deployed?

Everybody gets deployed in the workplace, whether it’s inferred or not. I don’t want to hatch a textbook reference but it’s always right people, right place, right time et al ;-)

It depends on what is needed to accomplish the mission.

When I was in, it could be the whole unit, or just a couple people needed to fill out a different unit that was being deployed.

If it was just one or two it was usually those that had a unique skill set.

The unit will deploy the minimum number of people needed to accomplish the mission. Sometimes that means everyone. Other times it means just select individuals.

Thank you, that helped!

It’s based on unit mission. Usually, the entire unit will be deployed together.

under the new rules, an individual can be selected for deployment, depending on MOS and special training.

In our Air National Guard wing, it depends on the mission in theater or what current expectations might be for the MAJCOM (major command) for career specialties needed for certain contingencies. Sometimes it might only be Operations personnel deploying or sometimes it is Services or it could be the Medical squadron going somewhere in the world.

My particular career field is Security Forces (Air Force version of Military Police) and we usually send out (2) different types of teams which are 13 man teams or an entire ABGD (Air Base Ground Defense) team which is made up of about 44 unit members. The latter one is what we have deployed to Kyrgyzstan right now for 6 months.

I’m not sure exactly how the Army is conducting their deployments these days. I was in the Army for 8 years before coming over to the Air Force side but I’m reasonably certain that many Army deployments are now (1) year tours and the unit size that goes is probably at least as big as a Platoon or even as many as an entire Company.

It’s usually not the whole entire unit that goes, some soldiers stay behind to make up the Rear Detachment group that are responsible for taking care of things state side. They will send as many soldiers as they need for the mission. Sometimes they have months notice, other times the have a few weeks notice. Generally right now, the deployments are 12 months and as of right now, soldiers are to get 12 months of dwell time in between deployments (meaning a year here and a year gone). They are trying to increase the amount of dwell time to 23 months (so 2 years here for a year gone), but I don’t know if that will happen with everything going on right now.
Once a unit is given order for a deployment, they will do additional training (that will take up a lot of their time) and have to get all their personal affairs in order. They will have appointments with a JAG officer to make up a will and a Power of Attorney. They will also need to let the Rear Detachment and FRG know who to contact in their family with any information.