As of January 8, Air Force Family will be Air Force Reserves Family.
Perhaps you're wondering why a family so gung-ho in their military-ness would consider leaving full time active duty... There is a reason, and it has nothing to do with money or the pace of deployments.
It has to do with...
politics.
Yes, politics.
And no, not the "I've had enough of the current administration" politics. Nor is it, "I think Hillary Clinton will be the next president" politics. SpouseBUZZ doesn't DO those politics - there are other sites for that (so please refrain from them in the comments).
I have said often and I maintain no matter what happens that military is full of wonderful people who truly do put service before self and sacrifice much. I've been blessed to meet people from 01 to 07+ who have been genuine and wonderful people who truly cared about and for their jobs and the people that they work with. People that will give up their time, money, and sleep to help wherever they can because they know that it is the right thing to do.
The military seems to attract an awful lot of people like that.
However, it is unfortunate that in the years of relative peace before 9/11 and the huge military draw-down allowed another ugly facet of military life to arise - the pace of politicking among some personnel became more and more and MORE encompassing. In some fields, how well you do your job matters even less than who you know or who likes you. Unfortunately, we ran into that wall. And because AirForceGuy is really good at his job, outside offers were available so that the worry of not making the next rank and getting out at 15 years because someone else with more headquarters contacts was able to snag that slot needed to get the correct boxes checked is no longer an issue.
Well, it still is on weekends and two weeks in the summer.
And I can assure you that this decision was positively agonizing for us. Even as the "limited" civilian lifestyle we'll have will be immersed in military matters, it's still different. I wasn't, and still am not, sure how well I'll be able to "do" those differences. I'm not sure I'm able to function easily even as a civilian-in-name-only, as the saying goes. And, perhaps worst of all, I often find myself feeling like a traitor to my fellow mil-spouses.
I think that the decision to leave is a lot like that initial decision to leave your biological family and enter the military. Home is comfortable, and you're surrounded by wonderful people. Luckily, we will still be visiting.
And because there is no way we could bear to separate ourselves entirely from the military, hubby is still working alongside them.
As a civilian. And in a different job area.
There will still be deployments - both as a civilian and as a reservist. Hubby is, in fact, actively working to deploy again as soon as he can (he's been home a year now, and he's itching for lack of a better term). We still have government insurance, we still shop at the commissary, and we will still move A LOT (thank goodness, I'm not sure I'm capable of settling in one place).
But it's different, too. We've already experienced a few of the ways.
And don't worry, I'll be telling you all about it.
