Deployment

I wrote in pen. I should never have written in that diary with pen. "There is strong, there is Army strong. And then there is Army Wife Strong." - Aditi Mather Kumar  They say it takes a strong woman to love...

Communicating the difficulties of military life to our civilian friends is something with which milspouses are intimately familiar. They often struggle to grasp the logistical hurdles and emotional strain unique to this life. And who can blame them? It’s...

I crushed a baseball cap over my bed head as I grabbed keys. The early morning air nipped at my fingers as I carried the handheld vacuum down the driveway. I opened the door to my husband's car and...

"See you laters" are an integral part of this military lifestyle that we've chosen. I made peace with that long ago, when I said "I do" and then "see you later" as my husband left for a six-month deployment. We...

Surviving deployments and even extended TDYs can take a lot out of everyone. The emotional roller coaster leading up to the goodbye; manning the day to day, day after day; the unexpected; and even prepping for the homecoming is a lot...

Every so often in life, you get to a duty station and you find a tribe that makes your time there so, so easy. You support each other through life's hard moments and cheer them on when life gives...

Five weeks. My husband was home for a measly five weeks when he got orders for his next deployment. That marked four deployments within six years. Our world would be flipped upside down, once again.  I was already constructing the...

When we heard about his upcoming deployment, it seemed far away. We felt like we had time. We began planning. My most optimistic self hoped we could get all of the dirty work of pre-deployment out of the way: things...

I remember as a kid when a friend of mine was sad I would ask her “Are you OK?” and maybe offer her a piece of candy from my lunch box with a reassuring “it’ll be OK” pat on...

If we were having coffee, I would tell you this is one of those days where we should be drinking wine instead. You see, it's one of those days when the Deployment Curse has hit me hard.  I sprained my...

There are three little words that I’ve finally started to pay more attention to in my 40s. The truth is I’ve said them many times during the past two decades of adult life. What are they? Must Be Nice. As in,...

Let me start off by saying, any spouse who supports his or her service member in any branch of service - I salute you (Wait, can I do that?)! If you are one of the lovely women or men who...