Army Wife
You鈥檙e a mother of three young kids, eight years married and your husband鈥檚 away a lot on business. It can be taxing at the best of times. But what if your husband鈥檚 business is being in the Armed Forces? And his 鈥渂eing away a lot鈥 amounts to months in a war zone, with limited contact and the ever-present threat to life?
That鈥檚 Michelle鈥檚 story; her husband is currently serving in Afghanistan, having spent a tour of duty in Iraq. In a week when there was a right royal hullabaloo about whether a prince could and should fight for his nation, we found out how ordinary subjects deal with the pressure.
Michelle recommends a website for the families of army personnel:
My wife has just emerged from her gardening books and caught an Army wife commenting on the difficulties of her life. She has great sympathy, but would note that the lady's husband is a soldier and the requirement for him to seve away is part of the job. Until recently it was not too onerous.
Complain about this postI am in the Merchant Navy and have been at sea for 40 years. I was away for 9 months out of every 12, mostly very far away, and until recently, with very poor communications, often only letters which would follow the ship for months when the ship was on spot charters. My wife had to bring up our two daughters, cope with them having an absent father, run the house and deal with finances all on her own. She did an excellent job, but, as far as I know, never complained to other people about the difficulties. Merchant Navy and fishermen's wives have no back up or social network, no welfare officials to go to, just their own character to enable them to cope. My wife knew what she was getting in to. We would both note that when I had to go into war zones our armed forces were remarkably unhelpful - British subjects on Liberian registered ships are sumehow no concern of the RN.
There are many jobs which require husbands to spend long periods away, often in great danger, often with no backup for families. Most get on with it as an inevitable feature of making a living.
The lady has our sympathy as we can understand what it means, but there are plenty worse off.
It is shocking that Army families are allowed so little time to contact their loved ones each week. My wife works on an oil rig and is allowed unlimited calls home for free when she is away. I know it certainly helps us keep in touch. She is away for much shorter periods than the three months that soldiers are. I can understand that for operational reasons it isn't always possible for them to be able to phone but thirty free minutes a week is not enough for people to keep up with their families.
It is time we started treating the Armed Forces better.
Complain about this postWhat an excellent and sympathetic interviewer - the questions were very pertinent and drew out all the main issues. Thank you too to that wife and mum for her portrayal of life for the wives. It was utterly accurate.
Complain about this postI am the mother of a serving soldier in afghanistan in the same regiment....what a brave thig this lovely wife did o Sat as it's frowned upon to say too much. This situation is AWFUL. Little time to talk to families....not eough phones even...and what makes me really angry is that I like to send parcels out ..sweets, biscuits etc...birthday pressies which costs alot o a pension and we have to PAY....ridiculous..don't we owe these soldiers and their dependents freepost on parcels!!!!!
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