Nope, No Sacrifice Here.

I've noticed an increase in Anti-Army wife blogs, websites and rantings. I've seen posts calling us all sorts of names, with all sorts of stories and lots of complaints towards the population of Army wives in general.
To stereotype a group, is a mass generalization, but maybe we deserve some of them? Maybe we have earned the titles we are given and possibly even the names too?
Or
Maybe, just maybe....some people just need to be bitchslapped? Opinions are like rearends. Everybody's got one, some just smell worse than others.

My favorite Anti-Army wife blogs are the ones that claim we don't sacrifice. In the last few days I've seen several for some reason. My favorite was forwarded from a friend of mine this past week. She was the wife of a Vietnam Veteran. She ranted about how she's tired of hearing about our sacrifices. That today's Army wife doesn't really sacrifice. That today's Army is an all volunteer Army and we joined this life willingly.

Well...She's right. We took our marriage vows knowing the possibilies of deployments were there. Granted the idea that we would ever really be at war, seemed absurd. But we still knew it was a possibility. Who knew, that a group of whack jobs would fly a plane into a national landmark killing thousands of people? But hence, we still signed that marriage certificate.

Compared to her era, we don't sacrifice the way she did. Going months upon months not knowing if she is to be a widow. Waiting for a snapshot of her loved one to arrive in the mail. With today's technology, its rare that we go for long periods of time without speaking to our soldiers, whether its phonecall, internet or even snail mail. I am grateful that today, I can log onto my computer and see my soldier sitting on the other end. That thousands of miles away, I can see that he is whole, uninjured and as safe as possible. We are a long cry from where we started nearly 10 years ago, and even further from when she suffered through Vietnam.

Now with that being said.....somethings are a bit different than Vietnam. Yes we may speak to our soldiers, on a semi-regular basis. Yes we may complain about deployments and we may even go a little overboard with the pity parties.
However, we say good-bye to our soldiers on a every other year basis. We get them home after 12-15 months away. Just in time for them to train for the next deployment. Right now, we have been given a "19 month guarantee". So for 19 months we have them home, then they are off to save the next country in peril. So compared to this person's ONE deployment, of most likely less than a year, we have a right to be a little grumpy.

Keep in mind, we've received guarantees of this sort before.
Our guarantee's are like limited warranties. It is only for certain if you don't PCS, change your MOS or become more or less valuable within the upcoming months. Not to mention if yet another world wide crisis is to come about!!

But my favorite part, is when she said her husband came home and refused to wear his uniform. The anti-war movement was so bad, that he couldn't stand for anyone to know he was a soldier. Hmmm...where is that pride and sacrifice now? I remember sitting in a restaurant and overhearing some hateful woman complain about the soldiers being murderers sent by President Bush to annihilate Iraq for oil. Try explaining that statement to your child. But she sacrificed more than we have when her husband wouldn't wear his uniform?

So maybe she's right, maybe we don't sacrifice as much as we could. But a sacrifice is still a sacrifice. Our children sacrifice more than anyone. We as Army wives chose this life. Our children did not. It was chosen for them. So tell me they haven't sacrificed. Our soldiers deploy, so your civilians don't have to.
Our children sacrifice, so yours can play tag. Our wives sacrifice, so you can stand on your pedestal. The funny thing about standing on a pedestal, when its knocked over you have a lot further to fall!!