Wednesday, November 5

Why you should support the troops.

In all the NaNoWriMo excitement, I almost forgot to post this. It's a guest post I wrote for eMail Our Military on why we should support the troops.

Why should you support the military? Because I do, even on days when I don’t want to. I support my husband, I love him and I want him home safe at the end of the day. Knowing someone else is praying for him and wishing the same thing for him means a world of difference to me. Let me tell you a little about him.

He is an amazing father who loves to play with his children. Two daughters, in fact. The sparkles in his eye and I’m sure the cause of headaches yet to come in the future. When he’s home, I may have to nag at him, but he does help around the house. He takes care of us and still finds time to spend with his friends. He’s an avid gamer geek, loves movies, and has an amazing sense of humor.

He takes his job very seriously. When he goes into work, he gives one hundred and ten per cent. Sometimes that doesn’t leave much for when he comes home; the Navy will always ask for more. There are those that call him “gung ho” and a “hard charger”. Those titles make him smile because to him, it means he’s doing something right. He shows up early and comes home late.

The guys he works with are just like him. There are others who run the gamut of personalities and interests, but the vast majority love what they do. They volunteer for it, they reenlist, time and again, because they love their job. They love serving their country.

When I think about it, he’s not unlike a lot of civilian people that I’ve come across. Hard working, loves his family, does his best to provide for us. And when it comes down to it, he’s a lot like anyone you might run into at the supermarket or on the sidewalk. He can still be a pain in the butt, he has his days when he doesn’t want to do anything. Times when I want nothing more than to lock him in the house just to keep him all to myself for a few days.

But I love him, with all my heart and soul, and he loves the Navy. He loves me, too, don't get me wrong, but the Navy is always the third in this trio that is our marriage. So I send him off to work every morning, carefully count the days between deployments and sea to shore duty rotations, and treasure every moment. And I pray nightly that I’m not alone in supporting my husband and his friends - his shipmates - in their duty to protect our country.

After all, under the uniform, they’re just other amazing fathers, mothers, husbands and wives.

2 comments:

  1. Now, I don't blame you for loving your husband (who wouldn't, I love him already) but I don't support the troops on principal, I'm afraid.

    The main reason? I don't support the guise under which they were sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.

    I think that we have abused them at the highest levels; and we are abusing the nature or military authority itself.

    Namely, we don't need a very big military.

    Not in a world of nuclear bombs and national guard; no countries invade other countries any more; unless they don't have nukes.

    So we fight countries that can't fight us back.

    Wasting our troop power and risking their lives for pointless adventurism in countries that have heavy natural resources; but no military structure to fight us.

    These are just my opinions though.

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  2. Haha! Thank you for loving my husband, too. :)

    I'm a military wife, obviously, and prior military myself. Even I don't support the people in charge. But the working guys like my husband? I'm behind them 100%. They don't have too much of a choice, you know? They sign up for whatever reason and then they've got to follow orders. No matter how many Chiefs, Master Chiefs, and other higher ups I've called to yell, scream and sob at about them for taking my husband away from me, there's no stopping it.

    I do understand your sentiment, though, and I really appreciate the level way you came across about it. Thanks for taking the time to read my blog and leave a comment. It's very much appreciated!

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