Heart Link Meeting

I am constantly amazed at the people who will thank me for Josh’s service in the military.  This is a humbling thought to me.  I feel like we entered this job to help ourselves.  We needed a change, we needed to fix our situation.  So, I am humbled when I am reminded by a stranger that he is also helping others serve this nation.  Sometimes it feels that he is not doing much in that he is not flying or attending to the planes that protect our interests.  He is serving the country though because he is looking out for the mental health needs of those that are flying those planes.   This life is still a little surreal to me.

Here is a way that Josh practices for his PT test.  He passed at 94% so he does not have to take it again for a year.  He was really excited.  In a year Pants should be a little bigger too so he better not let up on his training.

I attended the Heart Link meeting on the base today.  The meeting is put on by the Airman Family Readiness Center and is for new spouses to Nellis AFB.  I actually won a prize for being the newest Air Force spouse- 3 months new!   These kind of meetings make me feel excited for this new life that we have entered.  Colonel Perham talked to us about the base and how large and influential it is.  There is usually one wing on a base but Nellis has five.  It is the lower 1/3 of the state of Nevada, at 2.9 million acres of land.  This is bigger than the state of Rhode Island.  The desert climate is very conducive to flying and training as the air is dry and the mornings are clear.  Nellis houses all of the fighter aircraft for the Air Force so there is always an air show here with the pilots flying, training, and practicing war.  This is the biggest complex in the entire Department of Defense.  Nellis contributes 5 billion dollars to the local community here in North Las Vegas. 

The most exciting part of the meeting was that I obtained my first challenge coin.  Challenge coins are a military tradition and most service members collect them as they move from base to base and ranks.  Colonel Perham presented the coin to all of us with a handshake as is tradition.  Now I have to carry it with me always.

Here is a funny little thing we received at the training.  It is amazing how true these things are.  I am already noticing the truths after just three months:

The Ten Commandments of a Military Spouse

1. Thou shalt not write in ink in thy address book or planner.

2. Thou shalt not covet choice assignments.

3. Love thy neighbors from other branches of the service no matter how superior the Air Force may seem.

4. Honor all thy benefits for as long as they all shall live.

5. Be thou kind and gentle to retired, white-haired Commissary, Exchange, and Thrift Store customers, because someday thou too will be a retiree.

6. Thou shalt not threaten to, or kill thy children or spouse when your spouse is TDY.

7. Thou shalt look for the best in every assignment even though the best may refer to “most childhood diseases in one year” or “record snow in one month. 

8. Thou shalt remember all thy friends from all thy assignments when holiday greeting cards, for thou never knowest when thou may wish to spendeth the night with them while enroute to a new duty station.

9. Thou shalt not curse thy spouse when s/he is TDY during moving days, holidays, birthdays, or anniversaries.

10. Thou must never arrive at a new duty station and constantly speaketh about how much better thy last base was.

Just a note on #9:  We have only been in the service for three months but by June, Josh will already have been gone for a moving period (while he was at COT and I was selling our Springville home), three birthdays (Nora’s, Tessa’s and his own), and one holiday (Father’s Day.)  Now he just needs to be assigned a TDY in September and we will miss our Anniversary!