What has been your greatest blessing and greatest challenge in being a military family?

CH (MAJ) William Beaver — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 06:50:17 -0500

Military families are unique. I believe they are some of the most resilient people in America. What about you? What has been the biggest blessing in your military family? (Hey, I'm a Chaplain. I can ask that question!) What has been your biggest challenge? (i can ask that, too.)

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 4 at 2016 9:03 AM

1SG Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 09:03:11 -0500

Coming home to a wife who wanted out after 15+ years.
It very nearly killed me.
My new challenge is being a single father in the military. It is difficult, to be sure, doing this alone. But it has brought me closer to my children and so far it isn't more than I can handle.

Response by CW4 Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 4 at 2016 10:48 AM

CW4 Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 10:48:14 -0500

Spent 19 years as a single Airman and Soldier. 6 deployments. I even waived dwell time for one of the deployments. I heard countless briefings from higher ups that the Army cares about families. I watched Soldiers get sent home from deployments for HS Graduations, Weddings, Births, Spouse Having Cancer, and Deaths. I drank the Army Family Kool-Aid. Here I sit in Afghanistan, my wife due in less than 30 days with our first child. My brigade deployed with about 1/4th of our total unit. I am a UAV Warrant and we didn't deploy with any UAVs. We had a BDE Safety guy (DA Civilian) that couldn't deploy because he was broke. So they picked me out of an entire division filled with able and WILLING people to be a ground safety guy. I used to take pride in the fact that I was always deployable and ready to do. I used to think that when the day came for the Army to let me take a knee so I could take care of my family, they'd do the right thing.

To anyone on the fence about getting in the Army, my advise is to do it only if you plan to stay single. If you are in the Army and trying to decide to stay in or get out, get out unless you plan to stay single. If you conduct yourself in an honorable manner with the hopes that one day the Army will return the favor, let my story be a warning for you. The Army couldn't give two flying ducks about your family. If they had wanted you to have one, they would have issued them to you.

I will say that my opinion is based solely on my experiences. I have been in other units that would have done the right thing. In this particular situation, this current unit really is to blame. If you have a choice in assignments and 10th MTN DIV or any of its subordinate Brigades are on your list, take this warning. 10th MTN DIV does an excellent job of holding up the stereotypes of Infantry, 11B, Meatshields, Knuckledraggers.

If the Air Force had Warrant Officers, I'd be one.

F the A! F O!

Response by Capt Seid Waddell made Jan 4 at 2016 11:44 AM

Capt Seid Waddell — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 11:44:26 -0500

I was single when I was in, and I loved the travel and the life. It was not so easy on married men though; three men in my crew in Viet Nam got "Dear John" letters during my tour.

Response by PO3 Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 4 at 2016 12:09 PM

PO3 Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 12:09:04 -0500

... the greatest blessing .... is my wife still wanted me .... for now. My son is old enough to recognize while I start wearing my NWU ... he know I will be disappearing ...

biggest challenge is to keep the family together ... even with the thought of without me ...

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Jan 4 at 2016 1:40 PM

MAJ Ken Landgren — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 13:40:26 -0500

Raising two sons who were complete jackasses and an ex who was not a good person.

Response by Ryan Pecht made Jan 4 at 2016 2:31 PM

Ryan Pecht — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 14:31:13 -0500

The greatest blessing living with my parents is that i have gotten to see the world and i have gotten to see what great things our military is doing to keep america free and getting to learn of the familys big involvment with the military and i hope to continue that. The greatest challenge i have had is when my dad would deploy.It was harder and me and my mom and borther when we were younger but it still is hard to see him leave because we knew it menat he might have to miss more big moments in me and my brothers life.

Response by CAPT Kevin B. made Jan 4 at 2016 2:33 PM

CAPT Kevin B. — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 14:33:38 -0500

Greatest Blessing: my wife. Greatest Challenge: separation and learning to let go and the Ground Commander back home deals with it. Might be different solutions, but I had to give that up. Life got much better after that.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 4 at 2016 2:48 PM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 14:48:24 -0500

My biggest challenge is trying to keep my family together. My husband PCSed to Korea a few months ago and it's looking like our next duty stations won't match up despite being enrolled in the MACP when he gets back. There is one location, if we both get it, that our kids would have to live with my parents for three years or pretty much live with a short term care provider most of the time because of the rotation schedule.

My biggest bonus was meeting my husband. We debate, challenge one another, partner up and butt heads like no other.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 4 at 2016 4:29 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 16:29:14 -0500

Greatest Blessing: Meeting my wife and still being with her after 12 years. Also getting the opportunity of being a platoon sergeant and squad leader for some of America's finest.

Greatest Challenge: Missing almost the first five years of my daughters life. Between deployments, field, NTCs, JRTCs, gunnery, and multiple other Army excursions; by the time she was 5 I had only been around for a total of a year at best.

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Jan 5 at 2016 11:39 AM

MAJ Ken Landgren — Tue, 05 Jan 2016 11:39:31 -0500

My greatest challenge was escaping the darkness and pain of PTSD. My greatest achievement was coaching soldiers with PTSD to win and feel happiness. I still remember seeing an E-6 and E-7 sitting together at the WTU with thousand mile stares. We introduced ourselves to each other, and I left them with the message that I was going to change their lives and to trust me.

Response by PO3 Sherry Thornburg made Jan 6 at 2016 1:33 AM

PO3 Sherry Thornburg — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 01:33:52 -0500

Greatest blessing would be the way the service always saw to us in the worst times. My husband's commands were very helpful and ready to assist us when bugging out before a hurricane, medical emergencies and sudden changes like bases being closed or temporarily evacuated.

The greatest challenges have always been the long separations. Its just the way it is. When the service member gets sent away everything breaks, family issues come up, someone gets hurt or sick. It sucks.

Response by Angela Jaramillo made Feb 23 at 2016 12:04 PM

Angela Jaramillo — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 12:04:00 -0500

every duty station and deployment made me stronger as a person and a couple

Response by SrA Jerry Johnson made Apr 12 at 2023 7:51 PM

SrA Jerry Johnson — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 19:51:08 -0400

Greatest blessing is to have experianced it. I have been truely blessed to have seen countries citys and civilizations around the word that I never would have being an inner city poor kid growing up in Baltimore Maryland. However my greatest challenge was moving my entire life and family at times from base to base to base. In 10 years 5 PCS moves started to become a lot. I was grateful for the experiance, however when my time came to seperate I chose to walk away due to the fact that , I believed I was headed in a diffrent direction than the way y military career was headed. I wanted to settle down and have my family, ive gainned a lot from my military career. My life would have been drasticlly diffrent without the military. I also gained a great number of Brothers and sisters in arms. People who can truely understand where im comming from and share my experiances with and know they have similar ones.

Response by PO3 Rodney Sloan made Apr 15 at 2023 6:13 PM

PO3 Rodney Sloan — Sat, 15 Apr 2023 18:13:39 -0400

Having the opportunity to do something for your country and family..become a better person while learning a new career in whatever direction you choose

Response by PVT George Demos made Apr 26 at 2023 3:17 PM

PVT George Demos — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 15:17:19 -0400

Travel experience & adjusting to military life.

Response by SGT Carlos Herrera made Apr 26 at 2023 7:14 PM

SGT Carlos Herrera — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 19:14:00 -0400

Voice to skull and Microwave weapons!