Out of This World

Video by Staff Sgt. Daryl Knee

Life Through a Deployment

52nd Fighter Wing

July 6, 2013 | 2:15

Staff Sgt. Tyler Bigler is part of the 606th Air Control Squadron at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany. He's deploying but confident the Air Force will take care of his wife, Melissa, while he's away. Also available in high definition.

Cast
Staff Sgt. Tyler Bigler, 606th Air Control Squadron
Atlanta, Ga.

Melissa Bigler: Spouse
Pensacola, Fla.

Transcript
Melissa: It’s definitely different now that we’re married, and we kind of have our own individual lives here.

Tyler: Our normal routine is, we go for hikes – especially since we got a puppy – we go on lots of hikes with him. We’re both big computer nerds, so we’re always on the computers playing video games or surfing the internet. Since I found out about the deployment, it hasn’t really changed. We’ve known about it for quite a long time, so it’s just something we’ve been expecting. We kind of go about our daily lives as normal.

Melissa: Honestly, I try hard not to think about it. Just keep things normal and not worry about him having to leave. But, I also feel like we’re pretty well established here.

Tyler: So, for this deployment, what it means to me, is mainly I’m excited to do my job. My last deployment was kind of a special thing where I didn’t get to do my main duties. So, this one will be exciting for me, because I’ll be doing what I was trained for in tech school and such. As exciting as that’s going to be, it’ll suck to be away from the family. But, I’ve been deployed before since we’ve been together. We made it through that, we’ll make it through this one.

Melissa: I know that this is definitely … this is as bad as it gets. The goodbye is definitely the hardest part.