I am not about to write this to whine about how hard the Army life is. I am sure by now we all know it is no cake walk. Hell, life itself is not easy. We all have crappy decisions to make and consequences to face. The only difference with the Army life is we do not have a say in these decisions. We just face the consequences. I am not sure if people really understand what this means. So I will try to explain in as few words as possible. We have no say in where we live. The Army picks the duty station of our Soldier and we follow. Sure we can decided if we live "on or off-post" but that is about it. We also cannot just go to a doctor if we are sick. We have to go to our general practitioner to get a referral to see a specialist fro any condition we have. For example, I have a friend who needs a hearing test for her daughter. She has to go to the clinic, to get a referral, to make an appointment to get a hearing test. She also does not have time to wait as it is time sensitive for this to get done as they are leaving the country. They are being restationed and have to get all of this done before they can leave. These are just two instances where we have little to no say in our lives. There are more but that is not what this blog was supposed to be about.
I am going to talk about one specific thing we have no choice in the making of. That is the Mission. In this life the Mission is always first priority. I understand why this is so important. However, as spouses we sometimes get annoyed with the Mission taking away our Soldier.We get so little time with them due to deployments. Many people think a deployment is the only time we are separated. Unfortunately, it is not. My husband has been back for almost a year and has been away several times. I have lost count of how many times he has had field duty. This means he was away at least four consecutive days but usually more. There is also CQ duty, which is only overnight but it still takes him away. We also have big training missions. That is what we are facing now. He will be away for 11 or 12 days, depending on the hour they return. For over half of our relationship we have been apart.
We say this is why we are so in love, because we never get tired of one another but it makes this life difficult. I miss him. Our son misses him. He misses us. But this is the life I signed up for. Many wives did not sign up for this. It is something that happened AFTER they married their spouse. My spouse has been a Soldier since I met him so I knew it would be this way. That does not make it easier to be without him though. And the children suffer more than the spouses, I think. Always missing Daddy or Mommy. They are single parent children without understanding why. But it is for the course, or so it is explained. The greater good of humankind. I just wish humans appreciated what we go through to keep them safe and our freedoms protected.
I wish it was appreciated that my husband and other Soldier's in his unit have to work a 16 day work schedule with no break. They are having to do this for training to protect America against a nuclear attack or natural disaster. This is not training to protect us from the enemy overseas. This is training to keep us safe on our own soil. And I will not get into how some of the mother's of our soldiers feel. This will be the third Mother's Day in a row our unit will be on mission and away; whether in theater or garrison. Being away is away. It is just another sacrifice but it would be nice to have them here. I know it is not like Christmas but tell that to a mom who has not seen her son or daughter on Mother's Day in three years. I am sure it is little comfort.
HOOAH...this is the cheer. Hooah heartaches is what we all fear. We know they are coming for us and our children but we must push forward; for the greater good! Sadly, sometimes I just want to be a wife.
And shit I hate that sentence rhymes but if I reword it it does not seem to express what I want it too.
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