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SCOUTS OUT!
Yes, the challenges are varied and endless for that particular 'Military Occupation Specialty' - that of The Spouse.
I served in that field for twelve years.
Pictures of Navy wives at the pier in Norfolk seeing off/welcoming their husband (mine was a hospital corpsman)?
Been there - done that; the last time on that pier was four months pregnant, holding a little boy about to turn ten months old - parked temporarily with another shipboard wife and her infant to share expenses until the ship returned from the Mediterranean Sea.
Blessedly, orders for shore duty at Chincoteague Naval Air Station (VA) arrived before the second delivery. Not much of an advantage with Port & Starboard Duty leaving little time at home for him - but at least he was there to drive me to the hospital - to care for me when three weeks later I became seriously ill with both an infection and mononucleosis acquired in the hospital - 104 fever for three days. He was there to care for the babies, with no outside help, far from home and friends.
Later, as part of the Air Force, you know some stories I've related here of our being in South Dakota, and the Cold War; driving from there to Fairbanks, Alaska in the dead of winter with three children and two dogs, and some of those unique challenges while sitting on top of the globe!
Blizzards, 50 below zero temperatures, the Good Friday Earthquake - rowing to my car across a snow-melted creek to get to town for food, living at the edge of woods full of moose and caribou and wolves and bears; they were all a breeze for One Dedicated. Squeezing pennies and stretching food and figuring how to pay for repairs to the car that broke down... I became a 'Professional' Woman all right!
Next came the drive back from Fairbanks with my husband needing spinal surgery for three ruptured disks - a mere 5,200 miles through Canada, down the Rockies, and across the South to visit family in Florida - then up to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Surgery successful, there was one year of catching our breath before he was sent to Southeast Asia at the height of the Nam War, as a forerunner of Air Force Special Ops. I taught school that year, the children then 5, 12 and 13, and then had to scramble to find temporary housing until October, base quarters needed for Reserve personnel activated because of the Pueblo Crisis. In May, 300 of us wives were dumped into an expensive summer resort area to fend for ourselves.
When he returned, he had been assigned down the road to Charleston, SC - that week was our anniversary, and as we moved, it was pouring rain, and I held my roses on my lap while we headed for The Next Abode.
Regrets? None - - I knew the importance of our roles and what it required. I was blessed with parents of a generation who loved dearly their children, but did not spoil them - didn't turn them into 'Gimmees.'
We were taught to amuse ourselves as children and never ever utter the word 'bored' - to be respectful and cheerful and willing, and that every question/problem has an answer/solution, if you look for it instead of whining and crying.
The joy of it was seeing so much of America while living and contributing to its history, and the preservation thereof - and seeing so many of God's creations.
Deprivation was balanced with living in the Rocky Mountains; seeing the vistas going around the end of them and through the Yukon Terrotory to Fairbanks - breathtaking displays of the Aurora Borealis - going camping above the Arctic Circle, and then close to Mt. McKinley, looking out at vastness that defied comprehension.
It was seashores and Rochester and Ohio and Norfolk - and - countless towns and cities and The American Land.
Yes - I send special prayers for all those spouses who cope with the unexpected and unimaginable, not certain their warrior will return to them. Some will not. It is what they contribute to America, while the ignorant protesters spew their venom.
I mourn for the latter, who might one day wake up and realize where their position has placed them, and what it has made of them. Judgment Day might find them in an awkward position, explaining their blindness.
Others of us had to pay the price of their life's tab, keeping evildoers at bay.
They cried the word Peace while we were busy ensuring it.
Yes, ladtx, much is asked of military wives, but the rewards last a lifetime...
Your prayer this day is just perfect....
Ladtx, thank you for this.........your words touched me deeply. My mother was a picture of courage, holding the hands of two young children as my father, at least three times, sailed away on a carrier into the west pacific. She followed him from one duty station to another, making homes for her family in places like Guam and D.C. and Norfolk. I understand the sacrifices of the military family. God bless them and comfort them until their soldier or sailor returns.
