TDY vs. Deployment

[Bodizzle]

It seems to me that the distinction between a TDY and a deployment has gone out the window. The 174th's two week final trip to Vegas is being called a deployment as are things like trips to Guam and Japan. Heck, every time a Raptor crosses a state line its called a deployment. I know technically that anytime you pick up and move your operations somewhere else you have "deployed" but the term TDY distinguished between two week of hung over launches at Vegas and four months of wearing body armor. To me, in order for something to count as a deployment you need to be carrying live ordnance with the intent to use it, having live ordnance lobbed in your direction, and/or be in a location for say greater than two months. I throw in the greater than two months part because it nixes the "temporary" part of the term TDY.

[Meathook]

I would agree, in my early days, a TDY could be anywhere from 10 days to 60 days.

Over time, the TDY's became longer, the operational tempo changed, more troops, more equipment, greater distances involved, longer TDY's turned into "deployments" extending operations which later included "real world bomb dropping operations in time of conflict".

I often thought, the two terms merged as time passed, least it seemed that way but I never saw anything that clearly outlined it, one day, I was told, we were deploying and the operations became real (people died).....

[vcq09]

I recently spent 179 days in Japan working with the Japan Air Self-Defense Force on a Japanese base. Our UDM is saying that only Afghanistan counts as "deploying," all other overseas tours are TDY.