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Military Monday August 27, 2012

Happy Monday everyone! It’s Military Monday here at Cammo Style Love and I couldn’t have asked for a better topic to discuss. If you are friends with me offline or know me you may have heard one of my many OPSEC rants. I even wrote an article for Spouse Buzz about it (in which some lovely readers told me I didn’t to take it easy with the caffeine). It’s okay, I know I’m a little more OPSEC crazy then your average military wife, but that’s just how we are. The truth of the matter is that I think the average Military wife isn’t OPSEC conscious enough. However, I don’t necessarily believe it is all their fault. They aren’t the military member, they don’t often get any training about it, unless it’s a deployment time. Even then the training is severely lacking in my opinion. I’m not entirely sure you’re average military member gets the training they need, especially with social media being what it is. People assume too much. People assume all things are private and that who would want to see what little ‘ole them might be talking about. If you had a mama from West Virginia you might have heard this saying, “You know what assuming does? It makes an Ass out of U AND MI,” get it?!

If I see one more person posting something like, “My husband will be finally home in ___ hours” or posting numerous pictures of all the decorations they’ve put up BEFORE there husband is home, my eyes might roll out of my head. I’m sure people who will read this post will totally disagree with me, some of you may have even done those things. That’s fine, you can totally disagree with me. You can think I’m crazy. But lets be clear, just because those are my opinions doesn’t mean I think you are some horrible person for doing those things, or that you take the safety of anyone lightly. I promise I’m not thinking that. What I’m thinking is that the military is doing a horrible disservice to everyone by not making sure people are properly educated and making sure their own people aren’t doing some of these very things, therefore setting a bad example.

But, that’s not the worst of the worst. I reserve ACTUAL feelings of hatred towards people that know better but choose out of selfish reasons to turn their back on everything they know to be right. Most of you who watch the news have probably seen the story about the former Navy SEAL who has decided to publish a book about the Bin Laden incident. For the record, Military members, including retired military members can not publish or take part in anything without approval from someone. Do you know how many confidentiality agreements he probably signed? And saying that its okay because he is using a pen name is absolutely the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. He talks about so much that there really is about three people who it could be, and trust me, everyone involved knows who it is. I think it’s selfish and petty and frankly egotistical. Not to mention disrespectful and about a million other things. I personally won’t be reading it. I will concede in saying that how can you expect people to care about this stuff when our own President and Vice President were willing to just toss around what SEAL team it was that participated in the raid without so much as a blink. And its not like anyone could dispute that because disputing it would mean it exists, which they can’t do. The world of Intelligence, and OPSEC and Top Secret, Classified is a complicated one. And just so we don’t get all political here – I’m a huge fan of The Rhino Den – got to meet a couple of them at the Mil-Blogging conference – here’s a good article you might want to check out if you want to know more about this type of thing.

One of the comments I read was someone that said, “oh I think it will be so great to read about the SEALs and learn what they are really like and what they really do!” Well, let me tell you there are plenty of other things out there that can help you do that.

Why don’t you check out these books for starters, both of which have proud places on our bookshelf. You can win a copy of FEARLESS here on my blog as well.

If you’re not a book person you can always watch

Like I said, these are just my humble opinion, and since I don’t plan on cutting out coffee or soda from my life permanently the caffeine will probably continue to make me crazy.

Have a great week everyone! I promise, crazy rants like this are extremely few and far between, but when someone like this comes up I feel like talking about it doing the right thing by those I admire and especially in honoring my husband.

Monday is lots of things….

Monday is one of those crazy days…..the weekend is over, time to get back to life – hubbies usually are back at work and its back to your version on the grind. Well in the blogging world, there are two things that happen on Monday’s for me….usually. Most of the time it’s Military Monday’s over at the most awesome blog Marine Parent’s, with her awesome blog and shop.

I was thinking of trying to not just link up with whatever random post I’ve got going on Monday, but really tackle a Military topic or issue. I get asked questions, fun and serious, all the time by friends, family, random people, so what better way to handle it then to really talk about it. So for the first topic, I thought something fun might be fitting, but a question I got asked recently, and get asked quite often – What’s your favorite part about being in the military?

That’s such a crazy question because it seems like it might be a simple one. The military has been such a huge part of my life, that’s its hard to imagine not having it there. For the short time I thought it might not be I totally was freaking out. It actually kinda made me sad, more than scared, but you get my drift. Hubbs has been in for now for about ten years, two years longer then we’ve been married, and four years after we got together. I was fully a part of his decision and was 1000% on board. I grew up with a strong sense of Patriotism, and love and respect for the military – both real and romantic. I have a military in my family, and I even did my report on the most influential person in my life (in sixth grade) on my grandfather, who spent 20+ years in the Army and Army Guard. He served in Korea and even went to the Berlin Wall. My dad’s dad was a top turret gunner in World War II. Various Aunts and Uncles have also been in the military. Then of course there’s the romantic love of the military. Old war movies, total crushes on guys in uniform. I remember when I was like 13 or 14 I went on a tour of the Maritime Academy in Monterey, CA. That is pretty amazing and I was in total girlie heaven. Seems so silly now that I think about it. I am also the girl, that almost pulled over my car to snap a pic with an sailor in his Cracker Jack uniform in Petaluma one time. So funny. Watching Anchor’s Away and all those fun movies was how I spent my time with girlfriends. Later on in life, and with my boyfriend (now hubby), I really developed that love of old time war stuff into a real love and knowledge of history.

Me and the hubby (15 and 17) in vintage clothing from the 40’s

The heritage, the honor, the pride that’s really what I love about being a part of the military. Seeing my husband in his uniform, its a feeling like nothing else, and I still feel this way after all this time, the times apart, the crappy stations, the ups and downs, moving. I would do anything, go anywhere and sacrifice pretty much anything for him. He does it for me all the time. His career is important to me. Don’t mistake me, sometimes it absolutely sucks. Sometimes I don’t like it, sometimes it’s hard. Moving is hard – I am really missing my friends and family right now, adjusting to this most recent move. Despite all that, I still love it. I chose this life. Sure I’m not actually in the military, and this may be super lame and so not woman power but I would sacrifice my career, if that was the path I was on. It’s hard for those that are on that path. Juggling all that. There are so many wonderful women out there fighting to make that sacrifice easier. I admire them and I hope it does get easier for those that are struggling with that. I’ve said this before to people, and I’ll say it again. I may not wear the stripes….I haven’t earned them…but they are as important to me as if I were wearing them. Now you might think that’s super lame, but its how I operate in my head and make it through the tough times. Sure I complain, I get sad and frustrated. Just because I knew what I was getting into doesn’t mean feeling any of those things isn’t okay.

It may not be the way others do it, or how other feel, but for us it’s more than a job. Its our life, its who we are. We are proud of it. I’m a Wife, a Mom and a Military Spouse. Sure, there are other things that define me and I know there are plenty of people out there that have talked about not letting this be your only definer. How can it not be a huge one? Sure it might not be the only one, but its a big one. And, not getting all wrapped up in what does or doesn’t define who I am, or who we all are as Military Spouses is important. Be it Air Force, Marine, Army, Navy or Coast Guard – Active, Guard or Reserve, Man or Women, it doesn’t matter. We’re spouses and that defines us. Those other things don’t matter. That’s how we can draw near to one another. It’s not necessarily about our job, what we like to read, our hobbies – all of those things being important…but first what binds us is our love and support of our military member. The instant friendships I’ve had, the connections – without even having to talk about what book we’re reading, what our major is or even meeting in real life for that matter. These are all the things I love about the Military. And all of these people below!

Mil-Blogging Conference

With the wonderful Tiffany and Kris from The New Normal

With Angela from Homefront United Network, and Roller Coaster

Me and Lori, from Witty Little Secret

My friend Lacey who I met close to 6 or 7 years ago in my very first military support forum. We’re finally in the same time zone!!!

Silly google hang out time with military friends, one of which I’ve still not met in person but we’re as close as if we had!

One of the awesome part of moving is being close to girls that I’ve known for a long time from support forums and are finally getting to meet! yay!!!

And to close out this day, some Mommy and Me Monday’s action, with the always hilarious Really, Are you Serious. Mommy and Me Monday is all about getting in front of that camera with your kids. We don’t usually get in front of the camera with our kids, but with the hubbs having been gone I had a chance to get into the frame to take a pic of all of us to send to him.

Mommy and Me Monday at Really, Are You Serious?

Hosted by Krystyn at Really, Are You Serious? Thanks for stopping by!!