We returned from our honeymoon the second week of December 2008. Then came Christmas then New Years 2009! Little did I know where our new life was headed in the New Year. The first of January 2009 B started talking about joining the Military. I didn’t really pay much attention to it all. I never pictured Blake as a Military kind of guy.
I had a party for him for his birthday in February. By this time he had spoken with several recruiters and was thinking a lot about joining the Navy. I was starting to believe more and more that this was really going to happen. I wasn’t sure yet which branch he would choose but he was doing so much research, reading and speaking with different people in our community about their experiences in the Military.
Fast forward to April, he had decided that the Air Force was the right fit for him. He was excited and ready to join right away. Two things slowed him down. One, apparently everyone else in America had also decided to join the Military and so there was a waiting list 3 months long to just get his physical. This actually worked out for him well because the second thing he needed to do was loose weight before they would send him for his physical. Over the next few months he lost 35 pounds!! He worked his butt off, literally.
June 2009 he had reached his target weight. He went to the MEPS center, completed and passed all of the physical requirements. He had also passed his ASVAB with a score high enough to get him into almost any job that he wanted. He came home to me that evening with a 4 year contract signed with the United States Air Force.
Since there were so many recruits ahead of him on the list to leave for BMT (Basic Military Training) he was told it would possibly be late October or early September before he would get to leave. Just a few weeks later he received a call from his recruiter letting him know that a spot had opened up and he could leave in August if he was ready. I wasn’t ready for him to go and he was a little nervous but he took the spot.
Monday August 17th I drove him to Raleigh. He had to stay the night in a hotel then leave out the next morning for BMT at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas. We had dinner, grabbed some dog food then went back to the hotel parking lot where I just started to sob. I knew this would be the last time I saw him for two months. Nothing I know compared to what most Military wives are going through right this second, but sad nonetheless. He arrived in San Antonio late on August 18th. He talked to me from the air port to the base on his phone. He ended the call at 11:15pm, said they were getting them off the bus.
We were lucky; we were able to talk almost every week. I wrote to him everyday. It was hard, not as hard as I thought it would be. I kept busy; I tried not to think about him or what he had to do or how he was being treated. Thinking about that was harder on me than anything.
October 16th, 2009 B’s BMT Graduation….to be continued.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment