Being Supportive of My Military Man

When I first met my now husband, he was an active Marine. That was part of the reason I was attracted to him in the first place. Anybody who is strong enough to voluntarily join a profession that will ultimately put you in harms way, has my utmost respect. The uniform alone won me over but after falling in love with the man himself, we did what most people do and got married. It wasn't until after we had our son that he went ahead and enlisted with the Navy Reserves. And after that happened, we found out that his unit was preparing to go to Iraq. Being human, we were naturally nervous and filled with some anxiety, but we both knew it was something he was asked to do and he would do it proudly.

Shortly thereafter, he was called up and deployed for nine months. That may be a long time for some people, but I had no room to complain. Two of my sisters had already gone through Iraq deployments with their husbands who were over there for at least 14 months. So I had to keep the muttering to myself.

I was fortunate enough to have family support and help with the raising of my son. My husband was able to call us almost every other night and let us know how he was doing. He wasn't able to tell us his location but I respected that. I didn't need to know where he was at, I just needed to know he was okay.