On military life .. not the blog. You don’t get rid of me so easily 😉
After 22 years, the pilot is officially withdrawn from the military! You can consult the full summary of the Flight finish and the celebration here.
It’s been almost three weeks and I have a lot of emotions. I always have the impression that he is on leave right now, and I can’t really believe it’s over. It was such a dynamic lifestyle, filled with the highest highs (there is nothing like this feeling of honeymoon when they come back!) And a few stockings.
It’s wild (and I am so grateful to all of you) that many of you have come here almost all our military life! When we moved for the first time in Valdosta and I started the blog, we were newly married and I was new in all this lifestyle.
Babies!!
Our military life was putuated with pure joy, such as deployment feedback and funny squadron events, but also sadness, fear and concern.
– The incredible feeling when he hugged me for the first time after each deployment.
– When he had left a long time and felt a bit like a stranger.
– fun squadron events and the end of nights to drink wine and chat with the ladies.
– Talk to him on the phone while he was deployed, but hearing the alert attack rocket in the background. (It was a woman’s voice with a British accent saying: “Rocket attack. Rocket attack.”)
– Packages carefully packing and shipping deployment care, if excited to check the mail and cherish letters and handwritten cards.
– Learn that his plane had been showered with bullets during a particular flight abroad.
When I met the pilot for the first time, I asked him how often he had to be gone and if he never had to deploy. He told me that he would probably not have left at all and probably would not have to deploy. (All my friends from the military wife can laugh here.) He was parked in North Carolina six months later and was deployed for the first time in a year. He ended up deploying four times.
Military life is constantly flexible for strangers and the intrinsically rigid lifestyle. One of the most difficult lessons for me was that the army was always the first, no matter what was going on.
There are a lot of things that I can’t help but hang on, but something that will be seized in my mind was when I undergone surgery (so a hand was in a splint), preschool and A newborn with severe reflux, and he was Tdy for more than a week.
So many times, I had the impression that the end would never be there, and I joked by saying that he would drag me the finish line, an altered bag. The altered bag did it!
Sometimes we hear: “You know what you were in” when a military woman talks about her difficulties. For this reason, we are often ashamed of talking about difficult parts. You expect to keep a smile on your face, focus on all the advantages of military life and accompany it. Although I am a lot convinced that as positive as possible, it is also ok to look around and say to yourself: “It’s incredibly difficult.”
I put a smile (mostly lol), supported the love of my life, organized and assisted the parties, I went to important events, I held the strong during deployments, long hours and tdys , and puts my heart and the soul takes advantage of it for the good of children. I was honest when I had a difficult day here and there, but I didn’t want them to know the extent of what I felt. He was a commander for three years and did an incredible job, but it was difficult for our wedding and our family.
You can like your proudrecly husband, you can be proud of him, you can love and support our soldiers … and not * love * everything to be a military woman. You can get the most out of things, while not necessarily appreciating * all aspects. If you feel like you are struggling to pass and sometimes playing the role, it’s ok to feel like that. I just wanted to send my love to other military wives who maintain it. If you feel like you never get to the finish line, you will do it. You are incredibly strong – hang on.
Many things can be true at the same time: you can look back with sadness, tenderness, weariness, joy and gratitude, all the same.
A little note at the A-10 alias the pilot’s girlfriend:
– Thank you for the ability to help support our country
– Thank you for the funny memories
– Thank you for the opportunity to prepare so many baby meals – one of my favorite things about all this experience
– Thank you for the incredible health insurance. Some people have mixed experiences but I have only wonderful things to say about Tricare
– Thank you for the military friends who have become like a family
– Thank you thank you for bringing him home safely
She did an excellent job by taking care of him and always brought him home. More than 3,400 hours in the cockpit of this beautiful, and even if I will not necessarily miss the lifestyle, I will miss the joy that the pilot obtained by piloting the A-10, his camaraderie with the brothers and for Be there to encourage your achievements. I am so proud of everything he has done in the past 19 years that I have known him (just under 22 years old in the Air Force).
I really can’t wait for the pilot to enjoy long, very necessary holidays, then return to the world of commercial airlines.
Thank you for being there for us during the twists and turns of this crazy military life. While we turn the page, I look forward to chapter 2. 🙂
xoxo
Gina
