Ok, Forum Advocate Hat OFF.......

I'm sure I'll get blasted for this but I don't much care...you and hubby need to go into this eyes wide open....

The military is one of the most honorable professions there is and I applaud you and Celtic Menace for considering it. I also concede that you have a family with a lot of military experience so you definitely have a leg up there but I have to add to this with my own observations.

My Brother-in-law made a career out of the US Air Force. In the mid to late 1970's they were stationed at March AFB California in Riverside. At the time they were assigned there my B-I-L was a Lt. Col and was later promoted to Colonel. The officer's housing was exemplary. Absolutely lovely in the middle of the base and (in the middle of a desert) was lush and inviting. Salaries and allowances were good. I'm a good bit younger than my sister and used to spend summers there with them as a teenager.

As with any officer's, wife charities and committees are expected and my sister was no exception. Many times did I go with her into the NCO / Enlisted personnel housing complex and I have to say it was pure squalor.

One of the major charities she was working with was one that supported enlisted personnel's families. Housing was very sub-standard and a large part of the inhabitants (remember these were military families in base housing) were on food stamps just to make ends meet. It was one of the saddest most disgusting things I've ever seen - the fact that the US Government couldn't bother to pay it's soldiers a wage above the poverty line. I have been turned off on the military ever since. They look after each other in battle / deployment but don't (or didn't ) seem to be able to care for their own here on our own country.

I urge you to go well past the recruiters and the smoke they blow up you know where and go find some REAL enlisted personnel living in the current environment that you will have to live in.

Before you end up in sub-standard housing, on food stamps and raising the kids by yourself while Celtic Menace is deployed and not able to help you should look at ALL the scenarios. Both the real ones and the ones the recruiters show you.
I'm very interested in hearing some true scenarios from those who are active military.

Just bringing some realism into this one folks.

/Forum Advocate's hat BACK ON


We will be watching this thread for civility.