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Mrs.Wifey -> Military wives support (6/6/2008 1:24:26 AM)

This is a place for all of us Military wives to converse and support each other through the thick and thin of deployments, transfers, and all that fun jazz[:)]

Please be aware of OPSEC regulations when posting information.



BlessedMamaofmany -> RE: Military wives support (6/6/2008 6:35:24 AM)

Howdy.
I'm Sandy (duh [8D])
My man is in the big sandbox. He's been there for a month...only 14 more to go!

I hope ya find your way over here Julie...you'll get lots of support!

Hi Ryanne [sm=wave.gif]



BlessedMamaofmany -> RE: Military wives support (6/6/2008 7:28:24 AM)

Must be more careful about watching the news I realized this morning...I had the local news on, and Amanda came downstairs just in time for the local news to announce the names of several soldiers from our post that died in Iraq.
She wasn't upset by it..but it was obviously startling to her. I don't think she realized that soldiers die over there until that.
I never really thought about that until now. I mean, I had watched the local news, and everytime they would do that I would think to myself, "I wish they wouldn't do that, it serves no purpose." But now that I have a man over there....it REALLY bothers me.
Sandy



peculiar_lady2 -> RE: Military wives support (6/6/2008 7:51:12 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: BlessedMamaofmany

Must be more careful about watching the news I realized this morning...I had the local news on, and Amanda came downstairs just in time for the local news to announce the names of several soldiers from our post that died in Iraq.
She wasn't upset by it..but it was obviously startling to her. I don't think she realized that soldiers die over there until that.
I never really thought about that until now. I mean, I had watched the local news, and everytime they would do that I would think to myself, "I wish they wouldn't do that, it serves no purpose." But now that I have a man over there....it REALLY bothers me.
Sandy

call the news station and talk to them about that. it doesn't take much time for them to put a little saying to parents that kids may need to be taken out of the room before they announce stuff like that.
That was one thing I didn't have to worry about when mine was gone cause I was at my moms...but I still stopped watching the news completely because of it being plastered all over every news broadcast.



Mrs.Wifey -> RE: Military wives support (6/6/2008 12:04:40 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: BlessedMamaofmany

Must be more careful about watching the news I realized this morning...I had the local news on, and Amanda came downstairs just in time for the local news to announce the names of several soldiers from our post that died in Iraq.
She wasn't upset by it..but it was obviously startling to her. I don't think she realized that soldiers die over there until that.
I never really thought about that until now. I mean, I had watched the local news, and everytime they would do that I would think to myself, "I wish they wouldn't do that, it serves no purpose." But now that I have a man over there....it REALLY bothers me.
Sandy


When the father of the baby I was nannying deployed I stopped watching the news regularly, and even 4 years later I haven't started back again. I just read what I want to know online and leave everything else off. I've panicked more then once, especially when Micah was gone and I didn't hear from him for a couple weeks.


Anyway, for those who don't know DH is a Marine and is currently IRR. We have about 1 year left and then we are totally done.



IAMJulie -> RE: Military wives support (6/6/2008 5:28:21 PM)

Well, here I am. Thanks for getting the thread started. We still don't know what is going on. Rob just heard from his CO and the orders haven't posted yet. Likely we'll have to suffer the weekend now not know where he is going or for how long. :( I keep hoping that it means that maybe they aren't really going to send him. Maybe. But of course I'm not hanging my hopes on that either.

DH is Navy, he was submarines but won't be on a sub this time. It has been almost 6 years since he has been deployed and we didn't have kids back then.

How are you guys able to communicate with your guys if at all? When DH was on subs we weren't able to communicate at all with the exception of two or so mail drops during the entire deployment. For the sake of the kids I sure hope that we'll be able to hear from him more often than that.



Mrs.Wifey -> RE: Military wives support (6/6/2008 5:38:28 PM)

DH was on the ground in Iraq during the 4/5 "phase" or whatever you want to call it, so by then they had internet(our main communication) and phones pretty well established. I also occasionally used Motomail when I just wanted to send him an "I love you". We actually talked almost everyday with the exception of a period where the had alot of deaths and were under a blackout.



BlessedMamaofmany -> RE: Military wives support (6/6/2008 5:43:57 PM)

Justin is somewhere that has decent internet. It's wicked slow, but at least it's there. We're able to chat on yahoo messenger almost every day.
He calls when he can. The phone service where he is sucks.
Not bad, it far beats back in the day when my grandpa was in Japan and all they got was letters.
Sandy



peculiar_lady2 -> RE: Military wives support (6/6/2008 6:14:15 PM)

quote:

How are you guys able to communicate with your guys if at all?

mine was almost impossible to communicate with...in fact the last six months we didn't even have an address for him (he and three other guys were loaned out to another unit and they were never able to secure an address that really got their mail to them and not to the bunch of other guys from our base). The longest time we went with no communication at all was 2 months...usually it was about once every three or four weeks that he could call though. Paul wasn't lucky enough to be places with good set ups for internet and phones...and many of our phone conversations were cut short because of stupid soldiers not following OPSEC. When they would say certain words (that they were warned of[:@]) it would shut the entire phone system down immediately for everyone for hours. Usually the phone lines were about 7-8 hours long anyway (which is another reason he hardly ever called...he would wait til it was under a three hour wait). Every once in a while he would get a short one hour or less wait. We tried to do VTC three times, but none of those panned out. First time he was second from the last and everyone before us was taking too long getting in and out of the rooms so the last two guys didn't get to do it because time ran out. The second time some brass somewhere else in the world needed the satellite feed for an emergency so they cut our VTC time and couldn't get the sat feed back before our time was over for it. The third time they never pulled hubby out to do it...he was off doing some mission somewhere else and wasn't even there at their camp when it took place. He didn't find out that we were waiting to do it with him until two days later. After those three times we gave up trying to even do VTC's..it wasn't worth all the week plus of turmoil with the kids when they couldn't see him on the video or talk to him.



IAMJulie -> RE: Military wives support (6/7/2008 3:27:05 PM)

Well, we found out where he's going but I'm not going to say anything until I can ask him how much I can share. I'm really used to sub life where we weren't allowed to say anything at all to anyone. In fact, the wives weren't even allowed to know details about the subs schedule or movements. I'm going to have to get used to a whole new thing now, not just his absence.

Zion woke up with puking flu this morning and of course Rob is still required to do his Reserve duty even though their making him active again so he is gone. Cleaning up orange puke that is staining your carpet is no fun when your newborn is also screaming in the background because he refuses to sleep unless you're holding him. That's a new thing for him too. Arg! Calgon take me away!



Harvie -> RE: Military wives support (6/7/2008 9:10:59 PM)

My wonderful DH is in Iraq.... 4th time's the charm, right? [sm=funny.gif]

And, of course, the pay people have (once again) messed up his pay. I talked to the pay people on Thursday and they assured me that things will be straightened out in about 40 days. (Seems a long time to have to wait for a complete paycheck, but oh well!) [sm=mouse.gif]

His schedule is completely unpredictable, and he's 10 hours ahead of us, so I never quite know when I might get a phone call, IM, or email from him.... but I know he contacts me as often as he can. When we spoke yesterday, he mentioned seeing a REALLY huge camel spider .... eeeeek! [sm=icon_smile_yikes.gif]

I hate having him gone.... he was gone all last summer, too. [sm=heart.gif]



IAMJulie -> RE: Military wives support (6/7/2008 11:53:54 PM)

Harvie, do you have children?

What do your hubbies all do for fellowship? I'm concerned for my hubby not having any Christian fellowship at all. One of the big reasons he was leaving the Reserves was because his time kept interfering with the men's ministry and fellowship opportunities at church.



BlessedMamaofmany -> RE: Military wives support (6/8/2008 7:09:37 AM)

my husband is coordinating with the chaplain that's deployed with them to start a men's accountability group.
1. for christian fellowship
2. to witness to unsaved soldiers
3. to help other christian (or non) men that wish to remain pure while deployed (since porn is RAMPANT out there)

and my husband is rooming with one of the few other christian men in his unit. That's extra fellowship right there

Julie, maybe your husband would be willing to talk to a chaplain about something similar. I would assume that the navy deploys chaplains with their units right? Maybe they could get together something like that on board

Sandy



peculiar_lady2 -> RE: Military wives support (6/8/2008 7:54:41 AM)

quote:

What do your hubbies all do for fellowship? I'm concerned for my hubby not having any Christian fellowship at all. One of the big reasons he was leaving the Reserves was because his time kept interfering with the men's ministry and fellowship opportunities at church.

because of where mine was (apart from everyone from our base except the other three mech's with him) he really didn't get any fellowship (in a Christian sense). If he heard about a service going on then he tried to go, but that wasn't very often. The men at our church that went set up all sorts of opportunities for the guys that were together...so did the Chaplains....but my hubby wasn't with anyone else so he didn't have that benefit. In fact one of the men kept up with the Bible study that we women were doing back home for the guys to do downrange too so that we were basically still studying the same things every week for home Bible study.



IAMJulie -> RE: Military wives support (6/8/2008 4:31:00 PM)

Sandy, I don't know about a Chaplain. DH's unit isn't being deployed together, just him and a couple of guys from other units that he doesn't know. He is going to be stationed and working with Army folks over there I guess. They may have one of their own (I hope). Right now DH is a Lay Leader (I think that's the term) and puts on a small meeting on Sundays during lunch when he is on his Reserve weekends.

DH said it was OK to say that he is going to Afghanistan. We still don't know any more than that though.



Harvie -> RE: Military wives support (6/8/2008 4:53:36 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: IAMJulie

Harvie, do you have children?

What do your hubbies all do for fellowship? I'm concerned for my hubby not having any Christian fellowship at all. One of the big reasons he was leaving the Reserves was because his time kept interfering with the men's ministry and fellowship opportunities at church.


We have no children (just cats.)

My wonderful DH attends Sunday services over there, schedule permitting, and Monday night bible study, schedule permitting. However, his schedules only lets him do this once in a while. But he does visit the chapel and take advantage of the books/movies there. From what he's said, none of his immediate co-workers are believers and/or interested in faith-related matters.



peculiar_lady2 -> RE: Military wives support (6/8/2008 5:53:33 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: IAMJulie

Sandy, I don't know about a Chaplain. DH's unit isn't being deployed together, just him and a couple of guys from other units that he doesn't know. He is going to be stationed and working with Army folks over there I guess. They may have one of their own (I hope). Right now DH is a Lay Leader (I think that's the term) and puts on a small meeting on Sundays during lunch when he is on his Reserve weekends.

I can guarantee you that if he is being attached to an Army unit then they for sure will have a Chaplain.....not having one is like a unit deploying without a commanding officer...it's not going to happen. However I can't guarantee exactly how much that Chaplain will do or exactly how close to your hubby he will be....but he will be there.



IAMJulie -> RE: Military wives support (6/9/2008 2:17:19 PM)

Well, knowing my DH if his schedule allows and there isn't any sort of meeting or Bible study he'll start one - working with the Chaplain if there is one of course.

What do you guys who have kids make for yourselves meal wise? We have our kids eat what we eat but they eat SO little and, with ODS it's often a battle (I was the same kinda picky at that age). So essentially I'm pretty much going to be cooking for myself and I hate that, I often just end up stocking up on frozen foods and that's not exactly healthy.



Harvie -> RE: Military wives support (6/9/2008 2:29:54 PM)

Yay! My wonderful DH just called! (I love hearing his voice!)

[sm=dance.gif]



doinkdom -> RE: Military wives support (6/10/2008 12:03:28 PM)

{{{{{all you military wives}}}}}

God bless you.

I was an AF dependent - Dad was a lifer during Vietnam and it was definitley tough. There was no such thing as phone calls...you got letters and tapes. I also had two uncles who served, one is here, one is not.

My husband was on his way out of the Army when we met.

And for a couple of years, we ran a bible study through Campus Crusade for new recruits out of Ft. Jackson.

My heart is very tender towards our military.

so hugs to everyone here- I pray for you and your family.



IAMJulie -> RE: Military wives support (6/12/2008 1:34:11 AM)

Thanks. I here ya about only getting letters (and tapes), when my hubby was on a sub that was all we got and even then only about twice per deployment. No post offices in the ocean. :) Every time I think about how awful it is that our guys can be gone for so long I think about the Civil War. Talk about awful, gone for years, not knowing if they're dead or alive, communications were few and far between. Yikes! We've got it pretty good actually.

Well, we've got some more info on DH's orders (but still not all the news - weird). He's looking at 85 days training stateside (but not close to home), 5 days home and then 270 overseas - with a stupid clause that 270 days could be increased but no more than 420 days. Nice. We're of course hoping for the best. And, another bit of good news, it looks like hubby might be home for Zion's second birthday during that five day break. Or at least close enough that we can celebrate when he is home.



PrincessDonna -> RE: Military wives support (6/12/2008 8:01:08 AM)

I really hate to see so many of your husbands going to Iraq and Afghanistan, but at the same time, I am so proud of them, and of YOU.

I know you're nothing amazing or extraordinary in the strength department, but it is amazing to see God's strength flow through you all as you walk with Him through this hard time.

Thank you for your husband's service, and also for yours at home (you know...the service that doesn't bring a paycheck, but should!).



Harvie -> RE: Military wives support (6/12/2008 9:37:58 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: IAMJulie


Well, we've got some more info on DH's orders (but still not all the news - weird). He's looking at 85 days training stateside (but not close to home), 5 days home and then 270 overseas - with a stupid clause that 270 days could be increased but no more than 420 days.


Can you go visit him during those 85 days training stateside?



IAMJulie -> RE: Military wives support (6/13/2008 2:07:05 PM)

I don't know, Harvie. He is still finding out details. It's been a bit frustrating that info seems to be so hard to come by. We may try. Unfortunately DH is going to be off work without pay for part of July but we won't start getting paid from the Navy until August so finances are going to be tight a little bit. Then we kind of have to figure out how our budget will work on Navy pay.

What do you ladies send your hubbies in care packages? I've got some ideas but would like more. Have any of you tried to use a vacuum sealer thingy to be able to send homemade treats? Did it work?



doinkdom -> RE: Military wives support (6/13/2008 2:13:08 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: IAMJulie
I don't know, Harvie. He is still finding out details. It's been a bit frustrating that info seems to be so hard to come by. We may try. Unfortunately DH is going to be off work without pay for part of July but we won't start getting paid from the Navy until August so finances are going to be tight a little bit. Then we kind of have to figure out how our budget will work on Navy pay.

What do you ladies send your hubbies in care packages? I've got some ideas but would like more. Have any of you tried to use a vacuum sealer thingy to be able to send homemade treats? Did it work?


We sent a friend's husband some treats in a tin can lined with wax paper and he got them just fine. I guess it depends on what you send.

We send him a package every month - bottled water, wipes, bubble gum (to give the local kids), books - lots of books to read along with whatever he might request.



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