Many of our military families often endure such painful experiences. They do so with very little money and sometimes no support system. I don't know what's to be done for many, but I wanted to give a voice to one person who contacted me and see what y'all came up with for advice, commiseration and 'been-there-did-this" words of wisdom!
The following is an email I received, I didn't change anything except to remove her name and contact information. I'm sure you'll find many things to agree with, many things to disagree with, many things to applaud, many to infuriate.....we all deal with what we are faced with in the best way we know how. It's the words of a mil spouse reaching out from her own experience. Your wealth of experience would be appreciated!
Next time someone talks about supporting the military members, think of
their families as well. You may not know this, but a lot of military families
are broken just because of military errors. For example, I am a military wife,
my husband is active duty. I move back to Illinois a few months
back because my husband was scheduled for deployment. We were advised by
commander and first sergeant to clear housing and move to where ever we were
planning on staying through out deployment. They said they were FOR SURE
leaving by that date. So a few months ago we packed everything up and moved
me and my kids to Illinois. We had got all of our belongs packed and a lease
signed with tenants and the next day was informed that my husband was not
deploying till a later date, due to the extension of deployment months change
from 12 to 15. Now we are forced to live apart. On top of that my husband can
not stay in the barracks because he is married and is receiving housing
allowance which we have to have to survive. So my husband has to pay to live
somewhere and I have to pay for me and my kids to live somewhere. That is
expensive. Plus, because he does not have his own place, he has to eat out every
day and even at the chow hall it costs 300 dollars a month. We have got
extremely into debt, not to mention I am pregnant and trying to raise two small
children with limited money. My two year old is going through emotional problems
and does not understand why she talks to her daddy on the phone, but can not
kiss or hug him. Just writing about this is breaking my heart. It would be
different if he was deployed, I would know we were apart for a good reason, but
knowing we are apart now for a long time plus another 15 months after he
deploys, breaks my heart. We were advised to come back, but where could we go?
NOWHERE..... We would have no place to live. They said how about a hotel, Well
hotels cost money, and we already maxed out our credit card because of all this.
I hope that someone will hear this and help me and women like me. Even though my
husband serves this country, we still can't afford to live. Do you know that on
average military families make 20,000 A YEAR. That is not right that the local
trash men make as much as a soldier defending our country. We would love to be able to stay with my husband
until he deploys. Even if it is a one bed room hotel room. All of us could sleep
together. My little ones don't understand why we can't go back to Texas and it
breaks my heart when I try to tell them. My girl say I want to go home mommy,
and I say we can't baby and she says I want to go to work with daddy.
