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

My problems were numerous and very difficult, however when it came down to it, one of those problems; was that these people around me thought and were taught that they were civilians(dis empowerment, helpless to defend themselves), because of many reasons (the continuous attack on the USA by foreign and domestic enemies). Their personal convictions and faith is foremost in their minds, and racists jealous feelings often erupted when I for example would deploy a new service or product, something and they could not, skills mattered, lip did not.

Revisionists, traitors at home, insist on disparity so they can control the nation, via special interests, taking over the Congress and legislating freedom to the very citizenry (born in the USA), whose people wrote the Declaration of War (Independence), and the Constitution of the United State of America, in order to form a more perfect Union, between members (militia, citizens) and their faiths and fates, not a foreign nations interest.

My job working in a Communications Center.

How I changed and why. You go to Marine Corps boot camp one person...and come out another.

My husband gave me permission to do whatever I wanted when I was away on my first deployment as long as I bring home any surprises. Needless to say I did what I wanted and brought home no surprises. No one knows about anything.

A funny one when dealing with a young civilian whose only military knowledge came from old movies - He wanted me to "just get a 3 day pass" to come home to attend a school event his was in. The event was in Iowa. I was stationed on Guam. He had no idea that it took 17.5 air hours over about 25 total hours to make the trip - if the planes were flying a normal schedule.

The importance of time and specifics in directions. Time was always a thing for me because there was always a specific time things needed to be done. A report needed to be sent out every hour at 5 minutes to the hour. Showing up 15min early to anything.

Specifics in directions was also a thing for me. They needed to be given with specifics and in an order of operations. When I took over the household after I retired and stared making the meals, directions would mess me up because it would be at the end of the directions that the info about flipping or storing half way through the cook time would be given. That bit of information was important in the middle of the directions. Some people in my family didn’t understand why I had a hard time with it.

it is difficult to explain why all this bad news about Afghanistan and our service men and women is bothering me. I spent the better part of 4 years over there. I feel we lost everything we worked so hard for in the 20 years we were there.

My brother was not a supporter of my time in the US Navy because he did not understand the whole scheme of what the Navy does besides watching the large ship guns shooting out ammo. My MOS was food service and I did not want another career in that and that caused a huge rift in my explaining to the family of why I wanted to continue to go into the career counseling employment arena. Another was the initial explaining what I did in civilian terms from the rules/regulations because I did not know the HR articles to refer to. Currently I am part of the Detroit DVOP group and I break it down to the veterans I see how important it is not to say "I have left active duty" to " I am seeking or to obtain job title" For me to learn the key words that my family would have understand what I was attempting to tell them about my Navy career because I had good and bad times and would not change my Navy work experience. To say food service experience vs cook gave me more job opportunities in the civilian world..

US Navy retiree (MS1)

Considering my father was a WW2 vet, my older brother had already been to Nam and a younger brother joined me in The Corp and another was in the Army and just about all my friends were also in some branch it was easy to discuss just about any aspect of our service and beyond.

Pretty much everything about the military service. You can explain various things concerning the military and they believe you are building things up or making it seem more intense than it was. There is no way to tell someone what it is like to go without showers for week at a time. Or outrunning your supplies. How do you explain marching 25 miles then doing a deliberate attack on a position that the defenders have had several days to fortify. Other things are how close you become with the people you served with.