Well, I'm on myspace too and I saw it. I was in the Navy for almost 5 years and I'm a reservist now. My husband is still active duty Navy. He has been through 3 deployments already and it has been very hard raising a son with us both in. I worked a rotating 12 hour watchbill. That means 630am-630 pm(day shift). then 12 hours off, Dayshift again, 48 hours off. 630pm-630am (night shift), 12 hours off, night shift again, 72 hours off and all over again. It was really stressful and I never got sleep. We had no family over here. I had a good friend, but I didn't want my son to spend his whole life at the babysitter's, I wanted to see him too. So that was stressful to say the least.
I feel sometimes that the military is not appreciated or some people are mad at us for what's going on in Iraq. I tell people that lots of us don't agree with the war or our president, but we HAVE to support it as an American and because it's our job.
I hate being stationed in San Diego. Maybe it's because there are so many military people here people don't care about us. Many people are mad because the military owns lots of property here. Some civilians even used to call the air station and complain about the noise from the planes. Well, if you don't like that stuff, don't live next to an airport or an AIR STATION! People also complained about the traffic. But it's a major city, traffic happens.
People have also held lots of marches about the war right at our front gates at the bases with nasty signs. As if we're the ones sending ourselves out! Trust me, we'd ALL rather be home. It really lowers moral for us to see signs like that, it sucks to think that you could give your life to people who wouldn't even care. That is fine for people to hold protests, but it should be held downtown infront of the courthouses.
Another thing is that some places use our allowances against us. Wic doesn't count them. But the Headstart won't let us in the program. So I have to pay $150 a month for only 8 days (3 hours a day) of preschool which has been kind of tough, on us, but he loves it. It is just frustrating because where my sister lives in IL preschool is free and it's 5 days a week.
I remember after sept 11th there were yellow ribbons everywhere and flags up. It was really nice to see all of that support. My worst fear has always been that this will be another Vietnam where people will spit on troops like what happened to my Uncle when he flew home in Chicago because he was shot in the leg. |