Yesterday you may have heard about the "Army Wife" that posted in her blog about how annoyed she is with us "National Guard Wives" who mistakenly refer to ourselves as "Army Wives". She lives in Vermont and her "hubs", as she refers to him is active duty which by default makes her the real deal army wife. They are not around a large base of active duty soldiers so her "hubs" is often referred to as *gasp* National Guard and the NG wives act without class and speak when not spoken to and do not "represent" so to speak. What made it worse is she was getting slaughtered in her comment section to which her loving "hubs" came to the rescue and defended her. (I have officially slaughtered her blog with my summary, but you get the jist. I have, on purpose, not revealed much about her blog as to not add any further traffic to her already notorious post.)
Well, this little blog of hers has caused quite the stir. I have found references to it on multiple military sites I frequent and her desire to divide and conquer has had the opposite effect. Even better, today the U.S. Army Recruiting Station in Burlington, Vermont has issued a statement that while she may have freedom of speech her "hubs" has received a counseling session.
The official statement as posted on their Facebook Page:
In response to your concern, I would truly like to say this is not the command climate that we pursue nor agree with. We respect and honor all military personnel with whom we serve that has stood and swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We are all... brothers and sisters in arms. We believe that all are equal and all share the burden of defending the freedoms of the citizens of this country. The families of the defenders of freedom serve and sacrifice their lives in some ways more than those of us who wear the uniform.
In response to this blog and this Soldier. You are correct about wives not being under the prevue of the command. I assure you that the Soldier in question is. There has been a face to face counseling session with this Soldier as to the responsibilities of the freedoms and rights that our Constitution has so given to this Nation.
We apologize for the actions that one person has brought it up on himself, and we want to ensure you that this is NOT the actions or the climate of this command.
I vow from this point forward never to refer to my husband as "hubs" for it sounds utterly ridiculous. Perhaps I am being a little sensitive but to be perfectly honest I think this whole situation is absurd. I feel like I have been slapped with a wet noodle; that my family's sacrifice means nothing to this person. To insinuate that ALL he does is give up one weekend a month and two weeks a year just gets under my skin. Last year he was gone 25% of the year for training, that did not include his weekends and AT. When he is at his civilian job and has his "weekend warrior" playtime he not only works 40 hours at his job, but then spends a weekend at drill then another 40 hours at his job (not to mention his 3+ hours a day commuting) before he even has a day off. He doesn't drill 20 minutes away either, it is a three hour round trip drive. We don't get all the benefits of being active duty but still have to make the same sacrifices with deployments and training. She insinuated that National Guard wives have no class, they dress trashy and speak without being spoken to first. Okay, so I have been to some functions and yes, I have seen women that have been dressed a little risque for a Christmas Party but I am willing to bet that there are PLENTY of active duty wives that do the very same thing.
I am not here to bash this person and her petty thoughts, only to say that if you or your spouse has signed that dotted line that commits you/them to defending this country, whether you are the cook, the janitor or on the front line, you have made a commitment. Fine, vent, complain, whatever but we all put our pants on one leg at a time. Today your life may suck more than mine and tomorrow the winds may change and I get the sucky day, but don't discredit me because I am not a full time army wife. Embrace that I may have a different perspective on things as I would for you. Put your bitterness aside (and that of "hubs") and find the positive. It is great to be proud, even us National Guard wives refer to those who don't live the military life, as civilians; but we don't mean any harm by it, we only acknowledge that there are differences, it doesn't make us better it just makes us aware.
So well written, Shawna!
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