What Things Were Difficult to Communicate to Family and Friends About Your Military Service? Login & Share to Win!

How hard it was to be away from home, especially during the holidays.

One thing that most in civilian world have no clue what we give up and the "extra" set of laws we live under (UCMJ) I did get some great feedback about having their eyes opened from those who read my book On Amazon Kindle or paperback

How I was able to get by on such low pay.

The commonality of purpose. I had the opportunity to "work wit each sister service except for Coast Guard and we all had the same goal...keep us free!

Being a part of something bigger than yourself however, didn't talk about it with family members

The UCMJ! I served as a Navy Substance Abuse Counselor for Shore Duty (I was a GSE...almost nothing in-rate onshore). I worked with MANY members from all branches whose careers were destroyed by incidents that wouldn't even make the papers in the civilian world. The standards under the UCMJ that we were held to were so draconian that it would lead to protests in the streets with civilians. To this day, I am still hypervigilant about "keeping my shit in one sock."

My parents could never understand why they couldn't come in and actually see what I did for work!

The sense of loss from those that we served with. How do you tell your family about the 2LT you shared an apartment with before you both got orders for Vietnam? How do you explain to them the feeling of immense futility and waste on the loss of an E5 in an ambush? How can they understand how you end your tale with "it don't mean nothing."

The discipline. Many think it is just a waste of time and don't understand that it helps in all parts of living.

I think one of the things i had the most difficulty explaining was the extremely tight quarters and lack of privacy on ship. i think it is also hard to explain my insane need for punctuality (rather be an hour early than 5 minutes late)
I think I was extremely fortunate that most of my friends and my wifes friends were military or married to military so she did not ask too many questions about what i did.