Greetings Blogosphere! My compatriots and I are striving for the opportunity to share with you the Military Spouse, our perspectives and thoughts on issues both near and dear to you and to us. We each are unique in background and the 12 writers on this blog are anything but a cookie cutter, homogeneous and pasteurized, group of folks. Some of us grew up as military brats and then as adults, kept our association with the military. Some married into a life style that only love would be the arbiter allowing us to ensure we survived the cold water splash-in-the-face of military life, especially military life as a spouse. Some of us have ourselves been in the military. Many of us are or were enlisted, some married to enlisted, some officers, some married to officers. And yes, some of us were military married to military, which in and of itself, can bring trials and trepidations known only to a few. (If you're both deployed (knowing you can't tell "this" company, no-thanks), what about the kids? ... the pets? If there's an operational readiness exercise, who's going to pick up the kids at day care? What if you're both assigned to night shift -- YIKES! Daycare quickly becomes NIGHTcare, and then when do you see the kids??)
Of the ala carte menu above, who am I you ask? Dad was a career USAF SNCO
(maintenance crewchief seemingly always on swings and mids -- "Shhh, don't slam that door, dad's sleeping!"), went off to college and was commissioned, career officer now retired, married to an active duty officer (whom I've solemnly sworn to support and defend and love without bounds).
My military career starts a couple of years post-Vietnam and extends into Operation Enduring Freedom (the Afghanistan humanitarian relief operation) and Operation Iraqi Freedom. I stop there as my role here, isn't my role there. What is important, is knowing that all along the way, I was a spouse that had all of the "other" things to think about while simultaneously knowing I needed to support someone who like me, was pursuing the same goals. A balance beam that was mighty long and at times precarious -- but a balance beam worth walking.
What about you? Where's the balance beam taking you and your spouse?
Oh yes, around these parts they call me Toad, MaintToad1, that is.
