Life on Post

We’re in a car today, driving from Tennessee to Florida for our anniversary holiday. Our anniversary isn’t until August, but that’s when we expect to be PCSing, so we’re going now, while the Army is encouraging my husband to take leave.

If you’re a military family near an Anheuser-Busch amusement park, check out Here’s to the Heroes - they are offering a complimentary one-day pass for a servicemember and up to three of his or her dependents.

We’re going to be at Sea World on Wednesday.

I picked this book up from the post library at the same time I checked out In the Company of Soldiers for a re-read. I had seen this one on the shelves at Borders, and had been interested in reading it, so when I saw it at the library I had to pick it up.

It is a compelling read.

The Heart of a Soldier. Blaise, CPT Kate, with Dana White. December 2005. 368pp. Gotham Books, hardcover. ISBN 1-592-40177-5.

The last couple of days have been a bit crazy around here, with trying to make plans for a last-minute vacation during my husband’s leave, and doing some research for the next PCS when we don’t even have orders in hand yet.

Alas!

Military families might find this site to be of use: Automated Housing Referral Network.

The eagle-eyed reader will notice that I didn’t post at all yesterday. That would be due to the fact that I had a dental appointment - and I’m a very nervous dental patient, so it was a bit trying.

But if you are in the Ft. Campbell area, or will be PCSing to the Ft. Campbell area, I highly recommend 101st Family Dentistry, on Stone Crossing Drive (about 1 block from the intersection of 101st Abn Division Parkway and Peachers Mill Rd). Dr. Britton and the techs and hygienists there are really friendly, and very understanding of people’s dental neuroses. I found them through the Tricare website, as a United Concordia/Tricare provider.

101st Family Dentistry. 271 Stone Crossing Drive, Clarksville Tennessee, 37042. (931)906-8800.

“The stress of combat was indeed a revealer of character, and I had watched him grapple with his doubts, then steel himself and soldier on. He had taken care of his troops and executed his mission, the two essentials of command, while asking no more of subordinates than he asked of himself. If others found him hard to love — his intensity, competitiveness, and serrated intellect made adoration difficult — he was nevertheless broadly respected and instantly obeyed.”

When the Iraq war began in 2003, Rick Atkinson was a journalist embedded with the 101st Airborne Division based out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He was assigned to shadow the division’s commanding general, Major General David Petraeus.

This book is an important read, not only because I feel it is critical to have some understanding of just what’s going on in the Middle East, to have some compassion for what our country’s defenders are being asked to do - but also because it gives a candid glance at the man who is now the commander of Multi-National Force - Iraq.

In the Company of Soldiers: A Chronicle of Combat. Atkinson, Rick. March 2004. 336p. Henry Holt and Company, hardcover. ISBN 0-8050-7561-5.

Something neat that was brought to my attention yesterday: Beauty for the Brave.

A cool concept: donate the cost of a beauty product from your daily regimen to the Fisher House Foundation, an organization that helps support the families of injured or ill servicemembers by providing a place to stay while their loved one is treated in hospital. All proceeds collected are donated to Fisher House.

H/T: Andi of Andi’s World

It’s Friday, therefore, a good day to post a recipe.

My friend Rachel posted a link to this recipe earlier this week, and it seemed to me to be remarkably tasty-sounding as well as easy to make and marginally good for you.

Any of my intrepid cooking-inclined readers who try making it should let me know how it goes!

Soldiers’ Angels is an organization that I wanted to bring to your attention.

This devoted, caring group has been supporting the morale of our deployed men and women in uniform since 2003. Their teams write letters and send care packages to those who don’t receive mail from home. They stitch sand protection and cooling scarves for those in the field, and blankets and hand and feet coverings for those who have been wounded, to give them some comfort during their medevac flights and in hospital.

If you’ve ever wondered how you might support our soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, and Guard, look into Soldiers’ Angels.

Our family doesn’t get cable, because having access to seventy-odd channels turns out to be a huge time-suck. As a result, I’ve been watching the new Lifetime show “Army Wives” via the internet.

Last Sunday night I watched the entire program at home. The feed was slow, and I’d watch about twenty seconds of program before the feed would pause for another ten or fifteen seconds while the buffer caught up. But this past Sunday night I was at the airport, greeting my husband and his colleagues, so there was no room for television-watching. I decided as I was sitting in my usual coffee haunt yesterday morning that I’d see if I could view the second episode. The buffer and feed were even smoother at Mugsy’s than it had been at home, so I guess I know what I’ll be doing Monday mornings from now on.

I know there has been a lot of ruffled feathers over the fact that the enlisted families that are portrayed in the show aren’t representative of everyone - that there are such thing as highly-educated, professional, faithful enlisted wives. I know that to be true. And yet, I’m cognizant of the fact that happy, calm lives rarely make for critically-acclaimed dramatic television. Case in point: Desperate Housewives.

And yet, I’m finding this show enjoyable to watch. I can find something in most characters that I can identify with.

Click the following link for spoilers for the episode.
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So, I fully expected that I’d take a couple of days off to spend time with my husband. I completely forgot that I still needed to add him back to the car insurance, and ended up driving him to work this morning.

Since I’m up, and can’t spend time with my husband while he’s in his redeployment courses, there’s no reason not to blog while I get caffeinated.

If you’re a military spouse thinking about going back to school, but concerned that you’ll start a degree program only to get PCS orders, check out Drexel University’s special program for the military. Active duty servicemembers, their spouses, and their immediate family members are offered a 10-30% discount on the regular tuition rate (percentage depends on degree program).

I’m not ready to apply to a master’s program yet, but when I do, I will definitely be thinking about applying with Drexel.

My husband’s unit has returned from their successful year-long mission in the Middle East. Congratulations to the 40th Public Affairs Detachment on a job well done!

I’ll be taking a couple of days to spend time with him. In the meantime, I want to share with you this letter I stumbled on a couple of months ago. It is from Ben Stein, and is entitled Strength at Home: An appreciation of American soldiers’ wives.

See you Wednesdayish.

But for wives who marry into the military — “muggles,” as J. K. Rowling might call them — there is a curious round of new protocols and regulations to internalize: Men are no longer referred to by first names or by “Mr.” but must be called “Colonel Weasley” or “Major Granger” …

I picked up this book on my visit to Borders this week. I’d originally gone in to find the book that the new show Army Wives is based on, but discovered that it hadn’t reached my local shop’s shelves yet. I could reserve my copy, or order one of her other books on the subject, but instead I wandered over to the military history section to see what I could find.

I found Home Fires Burning, which tells the stories of a number of “waiting wives” — those of us who are holding up the fort while our spouses are away doing interesting things with interesting people. Ms. Houppert, a journalist and former military brat, profiled a variety of military families, and I found the tales compelling and the author’s writing style very engaging.

And she made an apropos Harry Potter reference, which is worth bonus points in my estimation.

Home Fires Burning: Married to the Military — for Better or Worse. Houppert, Karen. March 2005. 272p. Ballantine, hardcover. ISBN 0-345-46169-X.

As this is my first experience with deployment — and therefore my first experience with redeployment — I’ve been searching the internet for resources that have some tips on how to make the transition back home go smoothly for all involved.

I’ve been looking for months, and I cannot tell you how many times I have come across this brochure. In plain black-and-white or four-color, updated for a specific unit or a general document, the same bullet points every time.

There is some valuable information in this document. The section on expectations is very useful when I start to get caught up in making plans; if you read my last post, you know I am all about appropriate expectations.

At the same time, there’s a little voice in the back of my mind whispering, “How can they distill everything down to a two-page leaflet?”

~*~

Oh, and regarding the recipe from yesterday?

I actually sat down and had a full slice of pie, and realized that the gelatin and tequila had settled to the bottom. So I truly have in my refrigerator a tequila meringue pie.

It’s not so tasty as first sampled. Clearly, I need to find another recipe.

Now that Sgt. Crankypants’ deployment is coming to a close, a lot of people say to me, “You must be excited.”

This is a hard question to answer. Because while yes, him coming home is very exciting, until the unit touches down on American soil and they can well and truly say that their mission overseas is completed there is still a very real possibility that they might be extended. Or sent back.

It happened just last summer, to a unit from Alaska. Troops had actually arrived back in the States, and were informed that their deployment was extended and that they had to return.

Until I know that the unit is home, and home for the next several months, there’s a part of my mind that reminds me of that fact. Physically prepare for the best case, mentally prepare for the worst, and reality will likely fall somewhere in the middle.

Furthermore, we have little clue about the travel plan. Operational security dictates a level of non-communication, of course. But part of it also stems from flexible travel arrangements. Will they get on XYZ flight? Maybe, maybe not. And depending on whether your soldier gets asked to help load bags, that promise to “call when we leave” may or may not be able to be kept.

When my husband came home on his R&R, he called when he left the Middle East, and promised to call when he got to Atlanta, to let me know when I should pick him up at the airport. Except he managed to catch a flight to New Hampshire leaving immediately, and didn’t get that chance to call. He ended up calling from Manchester Airport, and instead of being able to meet him when he stepped off the plane for a joyful reunion, I got to rush to the airport where he’d been sitting for an hour.

My fault? Of course not. Was I glad to see him? Without a doubt. But it wasn’t according to the plan I had in mind, and that taught me a lot about setting reasonable expectations.

So what do you do when you’re sitting at home, wondering when you’ll get your soldier back?

Well, I clean like a fiend. And make margarita pie.

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451 Press has graciously invited me to write for them about life as an Army wife. My husband of nearly ten years and I have been on this military adventure for almost three years, and in that time we’ve been through a great deal - deployments, moves, and enough acronyms to make anyone’s head spin.

I look forward to sharing my experiences and items of interest with you!