Enlistment

Ok. So as you all know from my introduction, David enlisted April 2008 and left for basic in November. What you don't know is the story of his enlistment. First, a little of our background. We met in October 2004 and totally hit it off. We had a rocky first year of dating, but we made it through. We hit a few more rough patches, and decided to take a break because we both had so much going on in our families. Then in February 2006, my dad passed away suddenly. The first person I called was David. He was about 2 hours away from home for work, and it felt like it took him 45 minutes to get to my house. We weren't even together and he was still there for me. He stayed by my side, and I have no clue how I would have made it through that without him. We got back together shortly after that and got engaged almost immediately. He got an amazing job, and I thought things were looking up. Then in April 20008, he got laid off. He wasn't actively looking for a job, so I told him that we couldn't get married until I knew that he would have a stable income so he could support a family. He then told me he wanted to go talk to a recruiter. We went the next day and I found out from listening to him talk that it had always been his dream to join the Navy, but he never had because his family talked him out of it. He wanted support in his decision, and I told him that I was behind him 110%. If it made him happy, it made me happy. I would never hold him back from his dream. That night, we went to his parents house to tell them that he had decided to enlist. They did not seem at all happy about his decision. I felt like they were unhappy with the fact that I was supportive about his choice. Here is my opinion: You tell us our whole lives that we can be whatever we want to be when we grow up, but then when we make our decision, you don't approve. That's not right. The next day, when we were supposed to go to the recruiters office for David to go enlist, he decided he didn't want to do it anymore. When I asked him why, he would never really give me a straight answer, but I feel it had something to do with his family. We had a huge fight about it, and it almost broke us up. We both calmed down and talked and decided that he would at least go into the reserves to see how he liked it. So that Saturday, he went to MEPS, and I went to run errands with my mom. Around 14:30, he called me and said "Baby, I enlisted!" and I said "I knew you were going to...reserves, right?" He said "No baby..I went active duty. I leave for basic in November. Let's plan a wedding." And the rest is history. I asked him the other day, if he knew that everything that has happened over the past year and a half was going to happen, would he still have made the choice he made in April 2008, and he said yes. That made me the happiest woman on the planet. I love him more than anything in this world, and just seeing him realize his dream made me jump for joy. Don't get me wrong, I miss him more than anything, but I am a strong woman with a stong support system and I know I will survive.

Introduction

My name is Karlene. I am 24 years old, and I live in Tennessee. I have been with my wonderful husband for a little over 5 years, and we got married in August 2008. He enlisted in the Navy April 2008 and left shortly after we got married for basic training. He has been gone ever since. He went from basic training to ATT school where he was on hold for 4 months. He then was sent to A school for 6 months. Then, upon graduating A school, he picked his orders. Little did we know at the time, but the squdron that he got assigned to was currently stationed in Maine, getting ready to deploy and then transfer to Florida. So yet again, I had to say goodbye. He is now on deployment for 6 months. Hopefully, in June or July, we will be done saying goodbye for a while. I have been kind of down in the dumps during the past year or so without him here, so I figured maybe blogging would be a great release for some of my frustrations. I am currently semi unemployed. I pick a young man up from school Monday-Friday. I have great friends and family that try very hard to keep me busy and keep my mind off of everything. That is all for now. Hope to see you soon!