One of my favorite things about Army life is that I always have a ready-made group of peers and friends at every installation. People who speak the language, get the jokes, and live the life right alongside me. Now that we're working on year sixteen in the Army, it's becoming more and more evident to me how very SMALL the Army can be. You'd think with over half-a-million active-duty Soldiers in the Army today that you wouldn't ever see anyone you knew, ever. You'd be wrong. It seems like every time I turn around, I'm seeing someone from a previous duty station or, even more common, someone who knows someone we once knew.
Case in point: After our snow day a few weeks ago, my oldest son came home from school with a cell phone he'd found on the way home. We turned it on and called the number listed for "Mom" in the phone. When "Mom" answered, I told her my name and explained that my son found a cell phone with her number programmed into it. Could it belong to someone in her family? She quickly discovered that her oldest son had lost his cell phone and was very grateful for the call. Then she said, "What was your name again? Are you friends with ... ?" From there, we discovered no less than half-a-dozen friends we had in common (even though she and I had never met) and that her husband was the doctor my son had seen for his last appointment on post!
Case in point: After our snow day a few weeks ago, my oldest son came home from school with a cell phone he'd found on the way home. We turned it on and called the number listed for "Mom" in the phone. When "Mom" answered, I told her my name and explained that my son found a cell phone with her number programmed into it. Could it belong to someone in her family? She quickly discovered that her oldest son had lost his cell phone and was very grateful for the call. Then she said, "What was your name again? Are you friends with ... ?" From there, we discovered no less than half-a-dozen friends we had in common (even though she and I had never met) and that her husband was the doctor my son had seen for his last appointment on post!When we dropped off the phone (for which the sixteen-year-old owner was very grateful), we continued our discussion of folks we knew ... and some we knew who knew people we knew ... and it struck me again how small our Army can be.
I love a lot of things about our life in the Army, and this is just one more thing that makes me happy to be a part of this big Army Family!
It really is amazing how "small" the Army world is...so many things to love about it though :)
ReplyDeleteIt IS a small Army. I have only been around for a short amount of time and I have still run into people here in Hawaii that I knew at Hood. I love it too.. you always have Family when you move to a new post.
ReplyDeleteAw that is to funny...
ReplyDeleteOh! I just remembered one of my best 'small world' stories! I was a teacher before I was a mom and taught in Killeen as my first job. I had a 2nd grader my very first year of teaching that I later taught in 6th grade ... in Korea!
ReplyDelete