what is the difference? I thought deployment is when they go out on the ship for 6 months and I never really knew what a tour is. My husband says his tour of duty is when he goes out on the ship of 6 months and deployment is when they send him some place for an undetermined amount of time and the kids and I dont get to go with him. Also when they go out on the ships I've noticed that some you have your guys gone longer than 6 months. I thought 6 months was the longest they would send them out to sea? please fill me in.

We've always called being gone for an extened amount of time a deployment or tour. Or Dh will say tour when he is describing the entire amount of time he is stationed somewhere. When they are gone for just a few weeks at a time, I just say they are out to sea.

As far as how long they are gone on deployment, it can be as long as need be. DH's 1st deployment was for exactly 6 months to the day, 2nd deployment, he was gone over 7 months. His ship is rumored to be doing a World Tour at some point, which will make them deployed for a year. It just varies!

In my experience with the navy.. I have used "tour" and "deployment" interchangibly depending on the situation.. IE: i have done 2 tours in the Middle east. I have also used "tour" as a description for each command i have been with.. IE: "I did a tour on the George Philip FFG12 from 99' to 01'" but i have only used "deployment" for when i was on a Ship, and was "deployed" out to sea.

Oh yea.. Longest time i have been Deployed was 9 months in Kuwait.

A tour comes with orders. A tour in Hawaii could be 3 years, a tour in Italy could be 2 years, a tour on the damn ship could be 3 years and so on.

An unaccompanied tour is when he has orders to some place like Bahrain where they dont allow dependents. This is usually 1 year.

A deployment is usually 6 months but could be longer or shorter and no dependants are allowed either. He could be out on a ship or on land in another country (you could visit but no garentee you would see him).

i remember i use to confuse/aggravate dh at first when i was learning the lingo... i called everything a deployment..lol

Yeah we used deployment for ship and land "tours" lol
My dh has done 2 that were exactly 6 months and then one that was just under 8 months and another that was just over 7 months to Iraq

I've always used "tour" for land deployments, and "deployment" for sea ones (on ship or sub).

From my understanding, at least when DH talks about it to me and with other people:

Deployment: Land or Sea, usually a min. of 3 months.
The longest I've seen a ship be deployed at one time is 9 months.

Tour: Is the actual duty station a military member is attached to. For example where we're stationed at: The tour is for Italy. And if someone goes to Iraq for 6 months, they're deployed to Iraq. Or if the ship goes out to sea, for a min. of 3 months it's deployed. Or another would be a Tour for San Diego with 3-9 month deployments during a tour for 3 years.

From listening to DH talk, I consider anything under 3 months "out to sea." But once it hits that 3 month mark, it's considered a deployment. I'm sure other people have different definitions. I've heard tour and deployment used interchangably in Marines and Army.

From my understanding, at least when DH talks about it to me and with other people:

Deployment: Land or Sea, usually a min. of 3 months.
The longest I've seen a ship be deployed at one time is 9 months.

Tour: Is the actual duty station a military member is attached to. For example where we're stationed at: The tour is for Italy. And if someone goes to Iraq for 6 months, they're deployed to Iraq. Or if the ship goes out to sea, for a min. of 3 months it's deployed. Or another would be a Tour for San Diego with 3-9 month deployments during a tour for 3 years.

From listening to DH talk, I consider anything under 3 months "out to sea." But once it hits that 3 month mark, it's considered a deployment. I'm sure other people have different definitions. I've heard tour and deployment used interchangably in Marines and Army.

Thats how we always word it.... But I have seen a ship deployed longer then 9 months. My huisbands was extended and did a 10 month deployment at the start of the war