As we the people celebrate Veterans Day and rightly salute those who chose to serve the citizens of this country by taking up arms and being the first line of defence that no enemy may cross, I would ask that we spare a thought or two for the millions of people who are often quietly standing in the shadows and whose service and sacrifice is usually taken for granted.
These are not the ones who swore an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic but they certainly believe in that mission as much as anyone who has taken that oath.
These are not the ones who find themselves pointing a weapon at an enemy force they may not be able to see in a land that isn’t theirs but they are the ones that give our fighting men and women a reason for standing their watch and doing their duty with honour.
These are not the ones who will be loading up in the C-17s or ships with all of their equipment for a deployment whether it be short or many years but they are the ones who will be praying fervently to any god that will listen that their soldiers and sailors return home safely when their tour of duty is over.
These are not the ones who will have their orders (whether temporary or a permanent change of station/PCS) placed in their hands but they are the ones that will obey those orders and willingly move everything to the next place they’re stationed knowing that they are going to go through this again in 2-3 years (if they’re lucky).
Of course, I’m talking about the families of our brave soldiers and sailors who willingly sacrifice what would pass for a “normal” life because they believe in this country’s ideals and the need for our freedoms that we often take for granted to be defended by our *ALL VOLUNTEER* armed forces.
To be sure, the itinerant life of being a military spouse or brat isn’t for everyone. Picking up and moving every couple of years and having to leave friends you’ve made and go through the whole process of making new friends at your new posting is stressful. If your soldier or sailor is deployed, wondering how they’re doing or indeed if they’re even alive when you’re seeing news reports from their theatre of operations is stressful beyond belief.
But there are a lot of good things that come from being in the military family.
We get to experience different places and cultures and see things we might not ever see if we were tied to living in just one place.
Even though Dad’s domestic postings were entirely in the South (except for that one year at Ft Leavenworth Kansas which was definitely a Midwestern state despite Missouri’s multiple and concerted efforts to bring Kansas into the Union on the wrong side!), the cultures of the various places couldn’t be more different which was absolutely fascinating.
Even wandering round one region of this country makes you appreciate how incredibly diverse and beautiful it is!
And yes, it stinks having to say goodbye to friends it feels like you just met but there are three things that make it a lot easier than it seems:
- When you’re living on base or in a military town, most of the kids round you are in the same boat (metaphorically speaking, my Dad was career Army though he did own a boat at one point which was surprising because he was more often seasick than not!) and it’s only a matter of time before their military parent(s) will get their PCS orders in hand and have to pack up and move along.
- You learn very quickly to appreciate the friends you have round you and do everything you can to make adventures and memories that last a lifetime because you never know when the PCS is coming.
- There are times that goodbye for now didn’t end up being goodbye forever. More than once a friend from two postings ago would find their way back to you. Often your friend’s parent had the same MOS as your parent so it wasn’t necessarily surprising we’d eventually cross paths down the road.
Then there are the opportunities to unofficially try out some of those wonderful toys and training that come courtesy of the taxpayers.
There’s nothing quite like feeling the power of cutting loose with a .50 cal BAR mounted on a Jeep or a HUMVEE and reducing a target a couple of hundred meters away to splinters!
Then there were the jump towers on the back of Ft Bragg where the paratroopers would train how to properly roll when they landed so that they wouldn’t kill themselves. Imagine a ZIP line starting on a platform about 100 feet in the air and you’re hooked up to that line with a shackle that’s designed to open and toss you toward a sand pit on the ground when it hits a block on the wire a little over halfway down the line.
Doing a turn on those towers was a blast! What wasn’t so much fun was Dad having to limit me to five turns on the tower because he needed his soldiers to have the training time they needed. 🙂
The military life, particularly as a member of the soldier or sailor’s family, isn’t necessarily for everyone. But there were support mechanisms for the families in every posting Dad was assigned and often the best support was your friends who were sharing the journey and trials and tribulations with you.
So as you celebrate Veterans Day and honour our armed forces for their service, don’t forget that there are many more families and loved ones that are the reason they put on the uniform every day and do their level best to do their duty safely and with honour so that they can come home and take off that uniform and rest in the presence of the ones they love.
To all of our veterans, may you have a glorious and safe Veterans Day with your loved ones!
