5. Deployments
I know. Nobody wants to be separated from his/her loved one, but deployments do give you a chance to accomplish something you didn’t have time for when daily life was grinding away. You can’t fill the void of a deployed spouse, but you can fill up some of the deployment time with a project that you’ve been neglecting.
Train for a marathon, learn to can tomatoes, learn to can tomatoes in Italian. At the very least, pay off your credit card with the extra deployment money or beef up your savings account. Overall, deployments are a unique opportunity to pick a project and finish it. I realize I may have gone overboard this deployment by enrolling myself and my two-year-old in a mommy/toddler Mandarin Chinese class, but it is a fun way to use the time until my husband returns. Xie xie, Air Force.
4. The America You Love
The Air Force offers a quality of people that is truly special. They are always there to lend a hand if you need it, even if you’ve just met. Wherever you are stationed, you have a ready-made family you know you can count on to give you a ride, fix a dishwasher, or enjoy a weekend BBQ. Every new PCS, when I encounter the kind community and kinship of Air Force families, I see them as a reflection of what is great about this country and what I love about America.
3. Cool Spouse
Your Air Force spouse is amazing and talented and can do almost anything (except for sometimes when it’s 2100 and the kitchen sink is leaking beyond hope, and really, a professional plumber should be called, but your AF spouse is saying in squadron commander tone: “No one sleeps until this is fixed.”
You: “Well, can you fix it?”
AF spouse: “Can I fix it? I can fix an F15! Of course, I can fix it.”
You: “Is that the one with the one tail wing or two?” And then you and the dog slink into the bedroom to sleep while AF spouse grumbles under the sink. You’ll call the plumber in the morning.) Sink struggles aside, I know my Air Force friends and I are blessed with spouses who truly value us. I have a husband that daily makes me feel that I’m the most important person in his world. His commitment to our relationship makes the crazy work schedules or long separations tolerable because I know he is worth the wait.
2. Air Force Friends
When your spouse deploys it will be your Air Force friends who get it. They will be the ones to help you switch out your dryer when the old one screeches like a banshee, spews out your clothes, and keeps running even with the door open before dying a smoky death (OK, maybe dryers are the one thing not to buy at the BX).
But your AF friends will be there for it. They know how it is and they will remind you that it will all be OK. The deployment will end. On a practical level your friends will help when you need to know where to get your hair cut at your new station or which PEDS doctor to get. You’ll be glad you’ve got such empathetic and loyal friends. (Note: That loyalty does not extend to babysitters. Quality sitters’ names will not be revealed until your BFFs have their PCS orders and will no longer be needing the precious, precious sitters anymore. Boundaries are boundaries.)
1. Service
The Air Force is a job that means something. When you think about the life that you and your spouse have chosen, it’s a flurry of emotion. Pride, excitement and splashes of frustration coalesce at once to sum up your day-to-day life as well as your long-term future. Your spouse is making our country and our world a better place, and you are right at his/her side.
Without our support and encouragement, the difficult aspects of active duty airmen would be much harder to bear. You are a daily reminder of why your spouse does the tough, the boring, and the sometimes dangerous jobs. It’s your service as much as your spouse’s that make the Air Force strong. When your loved one is overseas without you or when his job is requiring him to be on base working so late he might as well be off in the wild blue yonder, remember that it is your service too. You make the Air Force strong. Please know that and be proud that you and your family are part of something bigger than a 9-to-5 job. Thank YOU for your service!
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