It’s the countdown to my husbands retirement. October 23rd he had his retirement ceremony, which was awesome having both sides of the family there. He will be going on 24 years of service with the U.S. Army and his time has come to an end. I am blessed that he has made it through all his deployments! We celebrated our 20th anniversary, three days before his retirement and I have learned so much and grown so much as a military spouse.
When we married back in 1989, I was a dependent of a military Officer. I have always moved every 3 years and loved to always try a new area. Marrying into the military was absolutely what I wanted. To keep traveling and meeting new people and setting up home where ever the Army sent us. It was somewhat of a challenge going from being the dependent child to the spouse.
I was 18 years old when I married my husband. He was an Private stationed at Ft. Rucker, AL. We were there during the Gulf War but he never had to deploy due to his job and where he was at. The time did come for him to have a one year hardship tour. Honduras. We found out 1 month before he left that I was pregnant with our first child. He missed the pregnancy but was home for her birth, only to leave 3 weeks later to return. He didn’t come home until she was 6 months old. So, I was 21 years old and raising our first child together, alone. I had to grow up quickly. At 22 years of age, we had our second child in San Antonio, TX. Then at 23 years of age, we had our third child in Ft. Hood, TX. When our last one was 2 months old, I found myself alone with 2 toddlers and an infant, 3 car seats, 5 pieces of luggage, 2 dogs and 2 crates on a plane to Germany to meet my husband for our 3 year tour. Talk about being alone! This time in my life was the time that I came across women who wore their husbands rank and looked down at me. This is the time when I learned that we had to overlook those things and get along because we were all that we had when it came for help and staying sane. Our husbands were gone to field duty exercises and Bosnia.
When he came home we were on our way out of Germany to Ft. Rucker, AL for a couple of years and then to Ft. Campbell, KY where we are now and retiring.
During my time as a Military Spouse, I have enjoyed all the travels. I’ve been to France, Switzerland, Poland, Italy, Germany, Alabama, Texas, Kentucky and he has been to Bosnia, Honduras, Iraq, Qatar, Afghanistan and so much more. One thing I never got was a shrunk or coo coo clock or grandfather clock. I did get my pottery and crystal though. I made a lot of friends and one, Angela, that I met in Germany, followed us from Germany to Ft. Rucker to live one street over from us for a couple of years and then to Ft. Campbell. I’ve watched her kids grow and join the military and she has watched mine grow. Her husband is retiring next year too! This world is really a small world.
Some things I won’t miss are the deployments, the TDY trips and field training exercises. The rumors that sometimes turned out to be true from those trips. Being a military spouse is really a hard job. You find yourself alone a lot and having to take care of everything. Then he comes home and takes back those responsibilities, which kind of upset the flow of things. It is very hard to have to take control and then give it back. Many spouses find it hard to cope with deployments but my hands were always full with our children. My friends and I would plan on the meals for thanksgiving, Christmas, easter, etc… It was hard but at least we had each other.
So now the choices of retirement. I have no idea what it is going to be like as a “civilian”. He got his job in the civilian world the day of his retirement ceremony and he will be with the guys at his current unit, which is wonderful for him! Today was a day of figuring out insurance, dental, medical, making those decisions and fedEx’ing them back to the company. His hair is longer than I have ever seen in since I met him in 1987. He has a beard! I will have to post a picture of the werewolf!
If you are already retired from the Military, send me some advice, if you have any. I would love to read it, learn from it.
