Army Wives

I am sure this will not be the last post I write about this subject, it is pretty near and dear to my heart.

Being an Army wife is a difficult and rewarding choice.  While I was stiling in church this morning, alone, because Rick had to work, I was thinking about this!

When I was in Germany (not an Army wife) my friend and I would talk about the women who would get so mad about what it meant for their husband to be a soldier.  We agreed that they cannot complain because they either married him when he was already a soldier and should have known what that meant, or he chose to enlist while they were married, in which case she should have helped her husband make an informed decision.  Therefore, while it is not always the best situation, try to think of the good things.

My mother-in-law was an Army wife for 20 years.  When Rick went to basic, we were talking about what that little piece of plastic (a military depended ID card) is worth.  I learned more about this while Rick was deployed. 

Ok, down to brass tax...
Army life is rough.  Rick missed the birth and first 9 months of our daughter's life.  He works long hours, is away from home at a moment's notice.  He doesn't always know the plan for the week before the week starts.  There is no 9-5 schedule.  He has to wake up early to go exercise.  We will move around for the life of our service.  We live in a house that is not really ours.  We are held to a higher standard and he has to report even a speeding ticket to his chain-of-command.  If we want to go on vacation, he has to take vacation days for the weekend.  He cannot go more than 75 miles from post without a pass.  We can have our house inspected by his supervisor at a moment's notice.  These are just a few.

Now, the blessings:
We have health care with no co-pay.  We can get into the dr and they can give us over-the-counter medicine for free.  We live in the largest gated community in Kentucky, guarded 24/7 by armed guards.  We have our own hospital, police and fire stations, grocery store, and department store.  We do not pay tax on purchases on post.  We live next to a diverse population who help us grow and learn about other cultures in our own country.  Moving around provides new adventures, experiences, and we get to live in different places without having to go through the hardship of finding a house or looking for work, Rick will have a job when we get there.  We have the pride of knowing that Rick serves our great nation to defend the freedoms we all take for granted.

It is a hard life, but it is so rewarding too.  I don't know why military wives feel the need to tear each other down, run each other away, and be hateful to each other.  It doesn't make sense to me.

We all come from different places, we all have a different past, and we all love our families.  Why is it that we have to pit ourselves against one another and then wonder why there is so much drama in our lives.

Ok, so I have been watching Army Wives since the beginning and I have to tell you that it is not reality.  It is a little funnier this season because there is a little more petty drama, which is more realistic.  But the ranks do not interact like they portray.  There is no way a 3 star general's wife would be hanging out with a PFC's wife.  Also, there are fewer officers than enlisted, so it doesn't make a lot of sense that all but 1 of the wives are officer's wives.  Maybe that is how they are justifying the rank interactions.  Who knows.

Well...like I said, this probably will not be my last post on this topic, but it is frustrating to know that we tear each other down instead of building each other up and helping when needed.  So, like Thumper's momma said in Bambi "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."