We are all in the same boat

As our duty progresses I have found that there are many things that I look forward to and others that I can not stand.

I love that I have my family nearby as a support system. I have no idea what I would do without them. They have been there for me when I needed them. They have helped me with the children, when I needed help around the house or when I just needed to vent to them about this duty. I have become closer with my family as I have gotten older but this duty has made it so much more of a blessing. I am glad that I have them because I have not had this hard of a time in a duty station before.

Here I have found that there is a sever lack of comradery. I have never truly experienced the division among the branches of service until we moved onto an Army base. Now understand that this is a small base and it is full of other branches, many navy green and blue side, as well as Air force and some other Marines as well. My spouse being in the service as long as he has brought to light the way that the different branches 'rag' on each other, if you will. I have never actually been ostracized or treated any differently because of what branch my husband felt suited him best.

I first experienced this when I got over my social awkwardness and anxiety and went up an introduced myself so some neighbors. I spotted a few women chatting by our house one day and said hello and introduced myself. We got to talking about the normal things, where we had previously lived, how we liked it here, and everything was going well.; I thought I was making a few new friends. Then they asked where in North Carolina we had lived and immediately I said Camp Lejeune. This was met with blank stares, I clarified that my husband is a Marine. The reaction  to this was like a slap in the face. Immediately these two women turned up their noses and said, "Oh your a MARINE WIFE" as if that was some classification of who I was. Then they suddenly had errands to run and have not talked to me in since.

I would like to say something to those women and all women who act this way. You are no different than me, if you are an officers spouse, a new spouse, or a spouse in any branch of service. Go ahead and pull out your ID card, I bet it looks just like mine, I bet you get the same benefits as me, and I bet your spouse deploys just like mine. Your spouse fights for all of our freedom just like mine does. You sacrifice just like I do. You miss your spouse when they are away just like I miss mine. You cry, send packages, love letters, and are full of pride in your spouse.

We are all in the same boat here fighting the same fight. Not one of us is better than another, no matter the branch of service or the rank that is held. Making it so that others do not feel welcome is not only impolite, it is hurtful and it gives you a bad name. It is mainly extremely unnecessary. We should be supporting each other, building each other up; this life is not easy, it is hard and lonely. Making friends and sharing the military spouse bond is the best way to survive the work of times. Especially with recruiting duty, just being near a base is a blessing in this case, it is truly amazing, and it is one of the worst. Having someone there to be supportive that I can relate to, because no matter how much we love our family sometimes they just don't understand. We need that military spouse to vent to and help us through. I know that I could have definitely used a friend recently, someone who would not bring me down or push me away because of the branch of service that I am associated with.