Fabulous Army Life

PHOTO: Our 2006 Reunion after a yearlong deployment to Iraq. Okay, so I’m a few weeks out from my Soldier’s homecoming. It’s supposed to be the best of times, the ‘end of the trail,’ the happily ever after … right? And mostly, it is. The thought of having him home is exhilarating. Our children will be euphoric, our families are already rejoicing, and we’re making fabulous and fun plans for our Block Leave (civilian translation: the time-off a Soldier gets after a deployment). It’s a great place to be! At the same time, it’s also a bit nerve-wracking. This man that I love, with whom I share all my secrets, that I adore with all my heart … is also the man that I haven’t seen in many months, with whom I’ve shared scratchy 15-minute phone calls ended by “I’m sorry. Your time has expired. Please hang up,” [forget any secret-sharing there!] and who has not lived in our house for over a year. There is such a stark contrast to all these emotions that it’s sometimes hard to sort out. When deplo...

I’d like to think that being an Army spouse has enhanced my views on holidays like Memorial Day. It’s one thing to honor an unknown group of heroes, and quite another to remember someone a little closer to home. Seeing the wife of a fallen Soldier in a local restaurant, watching kids whose Dad will never come home playing at the park, passing a unit headquarters with photos of their fallen comrades … common sights around the community where I live … it definitely brings this holiday home, and makes me more cognizant of those I did know as well as the numbers of unknown heroes that I didn’t. I remember another patriotic holiday, the first I had ever spent off of United States soil. My husband and I were in South Korea and had travelled to Osan to see an American 4th of July rodeo and fireworks. I had been looking forward to it and hadn’t really thought much about the fact that we were in a foreign country that day; but when our national anthem began to play, all of the sudden, I fou...

In many ways, I’m an “all or nothing” kind of girl. With new technology, I tend to hold out, thinking “I don’t need that” and have nothing to do with it at all … until I try it out … just a little … then I’m hooked. I go all-out, diving in head first without looking back. Case in point: facebook. I remember thinking what kind of book of faces would be helpful to me in any way? I simply disregarded facebook as something for a younger generation (subconsciously pondering the fact I used a term like ‘younger generation’ – ouch!) and nothing I needed to know. Then I heard it in a conversation, it was referenced in an email, a friend asked if I was “on facebook” … so naturally, I had to check it out to see what it was about. Just a peek. Well, hundreds of posts and dozens of photo albums later … I’m hooked. It's a great way for me to keep in touch with Army friends across the globe ... and nothing beats those "Welcome Home" photo albums! Same story, second chapter … T...

Photo: Soldiers waiting to board a bus to begin a 12-month deployment to Iraq. In the Army world, waiting is a part of the basic way of life, the standard operating procedures (SOP), if you will. Soldiers joke about the “hurry up and wait” aspect of reporting at “O-Dark-Thirty” only to have to wait for hours to accomplish whatever task for which they were sent. Waiting is a real part of a spouse’s life, too. One favorite is waiting for your Soldier’s orders. Now, there are orders, requests-for-orders (RFOs … you know the Army abbreviates almost everything), and then there are the waiting-until-I-am-sure-they-have-completely-forgotten-about-us-please-please-PLEASE-give-us-orders orders. Even better, sometimes you have the good ole change of orders! It’s all part of the sometimes-unpredictable way of Army life. In my time as an Army wife, I feel like I’ve spent countless days/weeks/months waiting … waiting for something from the Army. Every permanent change of station (PCS) move is...

Photo: ADVON returning from a year-long deployment. Okay, I have to admit that after 15+ years as an Army wife, I don’t know what ‘TORCH’ and ‘ADVON’ stand for. Something about advanced party … but there’s no ‘p’ for ‘party’ … so I just don’t know. I do, however, know what it means. It means your Soldier comes home FIRST!! We’ve never had the honor of either of those designations. My husband somehow manages to get himself into the ‘stay-behind-and-make-sure-all is-well-out-here’ job and comes home late or last. Not that I’m complaining, though, as I am happy these TORCH and ADVON folks get here and get the place ready for everyone else to come home. In a way, it’s reassuring to me. The wheels are turning, the process has begun … our unit actually is coming home and coming home soon! Homecoming becomes reality, not just a long-sought-after dream. It’s good to see our unit patch and our unit Soldiers back at home, on U.S. soil and on our Army installation. It’s heartening to w...