Army Teaches Troops How to Pick a Spouse

http://www.comcast.net/news/index.jsp?cat=GENERAL&fn=/2006/02/04/319128.html&cvqh=itn&ts=2006.02.04_ ^ | 2 4 06 | PAULINE JELINEK

[Freebird Forever]

family background, attitudes, compatibility, experiences in previous relationships and skills they'd bring to the union.

Good advice for anyone.

[AirForceBrat23]

Well, since no one else has said it yet, I will: it's better than "Fire in the hole!"

(This moment of poor taste brought to you by my five years of working on a Navy base.)

[LoudRepublicangirl]

My brother, being an officer in the Army, could not have picked a better wife than his wife Mindy. They were engaged the very weekend he received his commission. She is such an asset to him and to the military as she is a strong, fierce and well-organized American woman!

[Chode]

get merried and leave for the service in the same week... biggest recipe for disaster i've ever seen, and i've seen it tooo many times.

[ItsForTheChildren]

How do you tell when your husband has married a soldier?

When he makes the bed and folds his clothes better than you do.

Hmmm... don't ask don't tell.

[nicko]

roger that...my practice wife (first wife) never understood why I would yell "lock and load" when I would get home after deployment...my current wife of 23 years "got it" early in our marriage- her response was always "wait out for equipment check..." go figure...

[DakotaRed]

That's all I ever heard in Basic too. "If the Army wanted you to have a wife, it would issue you one!"

Of course, I didn't listen and married a woman who didn't have a clue about the Military and looked upon it as any other 9 to 5 job.

Funniest part was during the divorce, she actually tried to have it written into the divorce that she would have access to my GI Bill benefits.

[SandRat]

It used to be; "If the Army wants you to have a wife they'll issue you one!"

Now it looks like they almost are. Every issue item comes with classes from how to select, to how to maintain, so now.....

[Gamecock]

"How To Avoid Marrying a Jerk."

I'm glad this program wasn't around when I met my wife or she would have never married me.

[CodeToad]

The military is worried about the divorce rate so it blames the spouses instead of the year long deployments???

[Gamecock]

**She is such an asset to him and to the military as she is a strong, fierce and well-organized American woman!**


I have one of those. The only time mine forgot who she was occurred when we were flying into Atlanta during an Ice Storm. We were told before we landed that we were going to be stuck there overnight.

As we got into the terminal with our three little kids in tow, she looked at the pandemonium and looked at me and almost lost it. I gently grabbed her shoulders and said "Baby, you are an Army wife, I need you to act like one." She took a half step backwards blinked hard, and said "what needs to be done?" I told her to get some dinner for the family, and meet me back there when she was finished. I went and found what turned out to be a midnight flight home. (even after that she brought me something to eat.)

She laughs about it now and calls it her "thanks, I needed that" moment.

[Lysandru]

The military is worried about the divorce rate so it blames the spouses instead of the year long deployments???

Hey, the long deployments are a fact of life. And back in WW II-- it wasn't year long-- you stayed until the war was won.

So if the nature of military life demands long stretches away from home (and long hours even in garrison), our service members are well advised to pick their spouses carefully. It takes a deep commitment from a soldier's spouse to support that soldier "for better or worse." And yes, not everyone is up to it.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Good for them. Glad to see it. I worked in Family Support for many years while I was in the Army. I was no shining example to follow, as I have a divorce from a Sailor behind me...but that gave me much more empathy to do my job and help out military families who were in a (usually self-induced) crisis.

[TXnMA]

The night that TankerKC raised his question about the Ra^therGate memos' formatting appearing hokey, I looked back through my old USAF records to see for myself. One of the memos (whose formatting did not match the "Bush memos") was one from my Commander, 'allowing' me to marry.

I'm happy to report that we "beat the odds". Even without the 'benefit' of a "how to" course -- we will soon celebrate our 45th anniversary...

[TruthNtegrity]

Thanks for reminding everyone of the WW II length of deployments. I have a close friend who's Dad was gone for 6 years, and they didn't have email or even prepaid telephone cards. If they didn't get a letter, or a knock at the door, they were just left waiting.

And wait is just what they did.

What has happened to our family members that they don't unerstand the nature of war?

[El Gato]

The military is worried about the divorce rate so it blames the spouses instead of the year long deployments???

Compared to other wars, a year is not all that long. Still there's not much the military can do, absent a large increase in their numbers, and thus their budgets, about the deployments. They don't make policy, they only execute it.

[El Gato]

Are our military "Teen Magazine" readers?

Considering that the target audience is not senior NCO's or field grade officers, the answer probably is either "yes", or "not long ago they were".

[Doctor Stochastic]

One should pick a spouse in at least as good a light as one uses to pick out a suit. (And one should be at least as sober.)

[television is just wrong]

given the divorce rate in this country a little help and guidance in choosing more carefully might be a good idea..