Why only 4 months? Is that a super short deployment cycle? Or maybe he was sent back early because of some problem?
There’s a whole host of reasons why he only spent 4 months in Iraq. For starters, that was the year we were winding down there. Lots of personnel and operational turmoil happens in these transitions. He could have been a replacement for some other soldier who had to come off deployment early. He could have been injured in some way and evac’d out of Iraq. His entire unit may have only deployed there for 4 months.
That is what I was thinking, that 4 months would not have been a normal deployment. Also, it seems that he must have re-upped (maybe multiple times?), as I think the standard Army enlistment is 3 years. I am surprised they continued him (during 0bama’s regime?), if he had ongoing mental health issues.