To get you up to speed, I'm a somewhat-new Army Wife.
I'm surrounded by these gung-ho "Hoo-ah" wives that sport red, white & blue and boast of their army pride. Me? I'm happy wearing the J. Crew khakis and Banana Republic oxford that I bought before I got here - and thank God I did, as this fine military city has little to offer, short of a Sears, Target and Kohl's - for your shopping pleasure. The only commonality these tunnel-visioned women and I have is that our husbands are all deployed together. Other than that, I might as well be surrounded by deaf mutes that can only walk in one direction.
These women are like robots, programmed to fake happy smiles, forge friendships with strangers that otherwise they'd never associate with, and tolerate the bullshit life that the government has so generously rationed out to the military. Sure the benefits are good, but health insurance is hardly worth some sand-covered thug tossing bullets at my husband, not to mention salary - dollar per real-time hour worked being around $3.00.
Most of the women have been in this so long that they have forgotten how it feels to live in the "real world". It has become a way of life for them to have their husbands gone for a year at a time, and when he is home, to be away for weeks at a time doing field training exercises. And they tolerate it, along with special home-coming gifts like herpes that their husbands bring them back from their over-seas tours. But they're comfortable - the free housing, guaranteed income, and promise of retirement after 20 years if they don't get killed is enticing enough for them to close their eyes to the reality that there is a better life outside of the wire.
Why am I starting my 365 day countdown on day 79? Because I can. And because today I decided there's no way in hell that I can be the only Army Wife that hates this life. I don't drink the camouflage kool-aid. It tastes like shit. I wonder if Jim Jones added sugar to his powdered beverages before he killed his followers with it? Same mentality here; cult-like atmosphere. Men with power simply because of either the amount of time they've served because they haven't gotten killed, or they were privileged enough to go to a military university that allowed them to walk in as an officer. If you dressed these guys in white t-shirts and jeans and lined them up on a normal street you'd see the majority of them are low-class, tattoo-covered men who can do no better in life than to be a part of the club, allowing themselves to be intimidated into having respect for people who earn rank not by their education, their intelligence, or their abilities - but by how long they either survive or put up with this fucked up little system.
I am an Army Wife. And I will be, for as short of a time as possible. My husband graduated from an excellent university, then went on to get his Master's Degree. After he lost his 6-figure job in Atlanta due to the down-fall of the economy, he settled for an Army career. Why? Seemed like a good idea at the time. You get to see the world! You get to carry guns and play GI Joe! And there's no way you're getting deployed anytime soon - it will be years before that happens (or maybe it will be a month...surprise, it was! Oops!). Recruiters may as well wear cheap polyester suits and over-gel their comb-overs - they're as bad as used car salesman. They shovel more bullshit down these potential-soldiers throats than these desperate guys can even swallow, specializing in finding weaknesses and insecurities and covering them with band-aids that look like sign-on bonuses, promises that you later find out aren't even feasible, and contracts that bind you into their he-man-woman-haters club for ridiculous amount of time. For plenty of guys, this is the best they can do. And for them, it may very well be a good option. We need men to keep our country safe - and they're the perfect ones for the job. My well-educated, middle-aged, father of 3 husband certainly doesn't fall into this category.
Tune-in next time for my newest rant: Pulling-Out Doesn't Work With Sex OR Obama.