Memorial Day

Yup, I'm a day late, but . . . my prayers, respect and gratitude go out to our troops every day -- and not just them, but to their families as well. Sometimes I think the families get short-changed. A lot of civilians don't realize that it takes a special kind of person to make a life with a servicemember. There are tremendous adjustments to be made -- even the language they speak is different. You have to deal with all those days and weeks of training out in the field, as well as all those long-term deployments, and the uncertainties . . . We've been through deployments where no one knew for sure when they were leaving or coming home until a few short hours before. When they're gone, you get to be both mother and father to the kids; in no time at all, you go from a partnership to working on your own, bearing responsibility for everything. And once you and the kids get adjusted to that, your spouse comes home and the adjustments have to start all over again.

As for making long-term plans . . . ha! The only thing I could pretty much plan on when my husband was in the Navy was that when our birthdays and anniversaries rolled around, he would be someplace else. He was often someplace else -- when the baby got pneumonia, when the car broke down, when the kid broke his ankle . . .

Mind you, I'm not complaining. When my husband went back into the Navy after we were married, I was the biggest weenie you ever saw. I was afraid of my own shadow. Being married to the Navy gave me two choices: grow up or settle in for a really, really tough life. I chose to grow up.

So . . . like I said, my prayers and respect go out to the troops every day, but also to their families. The wives/husbands, fiancees and girlfriends/boyfriends who wait patiently, who run the household and oversee the family while they're gone; to the kids who may not understand why Mom or Dad has to be away so much of the time but love them anyway; to the parents who never get over that fear when they hear about casualties far away.

Years ago, the Navy ran an ad campaign with the slogan, "The toughest job in the Navy: Navy wife." Amen to that. To all of you, many, many thanks. Rachel9:11 AM