This afternoon I watched one of my favorite movies, "The Flight of the Intruder". While Lt. Jake Grafton and his shipmates were fighting the Vietnamese war, I was on a carrier in the Mediterranean.

In that era, a deployed sailor (or soldier, airman or Marine) was essentially cut off from his family and friends. We didn't have the internet, or email, or satellite telephones that would allow us to call home. I was aboard the FDR about 3-1/2 years. 16 months of this time we were deployed. A large portion of the remaining time was spent at sea in the Atlantic training for war, or in drydock in Philadelphia. (We were homeported in Mayport, near Jacksonville FL.)

For many sailors there is a love/hate relationship with the Navy, with his ship, with the sea. Ah, the sea, the sea! You hate it while you are at sea and miss it when you are ashore. Sea time separation can easily destroy family bonds

As I look back to that time (that was that was over 30 years ago!), there is a lot of nostalgia for the sea, for shipboard life, mixed with bitterness toward the sea, toward shipboard life.

I have been divorced for 20+ of that 30+ years. My wife and I grew in different directions and our relationship never had a true chance to grow (I was already in the Navy when we wed, and left almost immediately for Guantamo Bay, Cuba).

If you have a serviceman or servicewoman overseas, support them in prayer, with letters, email, and phone calls. When they are home, enjoy your time together. Don't spoil it with complaints about your time apart.

Love your family, love your country, and most of all, love God.