Deployment countdown: days until homecoming
Put in the day it started and the day you expect them home. You get the days left, a bar from goodbye to homecoming, the halfway mark and your own milestones, and a private mode that hides every date when the dates should stay off the internet.
Milestones
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Keeping a countdown safe
A countdown is a happy thing to post, and a departure or homecoming date is also exactly the kind of detail operational security asks families to keep close. A few habits that cost nothing:
- Share exact dates privately with people who need them, not on public profiles or in public groups.
- Use private mode for anything you post. It shows how far along you are without a date, a day count or a place.
- Leave out units, locations, movements and changes to the schedule, even when they are exciting news.
- When in doubt, ask. Your service member, the unit’s family readiness contacts and Military OneSource can point you to the guidance that applies to you; this page does not set or describe any military policy.
More in the guide: a deployment countdown for couples and families, with OPSEC habits.
What The Long Goodbye does today
The app is for two people a long way apart, and deployments are one of the reasons it exists. Once you pair, each of you sees the other’s local time and time of day, a “thinking of you” tap that lights up the other’s home-screen widget, and a countdown to the day you are together, on the home-screen widget and the lock screen. Countdown milestones arrive as notifications. Everything is private to the two of you; there is no feed and no public profile.
It is not a messaging app and not an emergency or location service, and it does not know where anyone is: presence comes from each phone’s time zone, not GPS. One countdown is free; Together+ adds several countdowns and recurring ones.
Pair once, and their local time, their last tap and the days until homecoming sit on your home screen and lock screen, without opening anything.
Questions
How do I make a deployment countdown?
Enter the day the deployment started and the expected homecoming date. The page shows the days left, how far along you are, and milestones at a quarter, halfway, three quarters, 30 days and one week to go. Add your own dates, such as R&R or a birthday call, and they appear on the bar and in the list.
What does private (OPSEC) mode do?
It hides every date and the day count. The page and any link you make show only the progress bar and the word soon, and the milestone list shows done or ahead instead of dates. A private share link carries no date at all: just the percentage of the way you are today.
Is my homecoming date sent to a server?
No. The countdown is worked out in your browser. If you tick Remember on this device, the dates are kept in this browser’s own storage and nowhere else. A share link keeps its date after the # in the address, a part browsers do not send to the website.
Can I count down to R&R or mid-tour leave?
Yes. Add it as one of your own milestones with its date and it shows as a tick on the bar and a line in the list. Leave policies differ by service, unit and deployment, so treat any date as a plan until it is confirmed through official channels.
The homecoming date moved. What now?
Change the date and everything recalculates. Links you already shared keep the old date, so make a new link and send that one. Many families keep the exact date private and share a private link instead.