Many of the military spouses, children, and parents I have contacted over the course of this blogging experience have continuously thrown the same misconceptions my way, expressing the fury they feel when these military myths below are thrown at their faces.
1. Education
Joining the military is sometimes seen as the easier road to travel on when one cannot find the means or motivation to continue to higher education. Firstly, an individual must acquire a high school diploma or GED in order to enter the Armed Forces. A 2013 study showed that 95% of officers at that time had received a bachelor's degree before commissioning and at least 25% have acquired an advanced degree of sorts. Tests have also proven that enlistees often held higher scores on standardized tests and read at higher reading levels than their civilian counterparts prior to joining the military. Additionally, the military provides many options in helping to further a member's education by providing a GI Bill - financial assistance to member's and their families, as well as training and schooling included in their military career that will allow service members to acquire the skills necessary to carry in to their "real world" experiences following retirement from the service.
2. Money
It is still a belief that military families must make a fat paycheck if they have a lot of children with a stay-at-home mom and father who is always gone. This could not be further from the truth. Many times, the civilian spouse stays at home to raise the children because finding a job when constantly being uprooted can sometimes be really difficult to do. The military is not a life full of luxury. Pay is determined based off of the service member's rank and is increased as they are promoted higher. Member's do receive BAH - Basic Allowance for Housing - to assist in paying for their living quarters at each duty station, however, the BAH is determined by where in the world the member is living as well as how many dependents are living with him/her. Often, a member must dip into their paycheck to cover what their BAH did not, such as utilities and their personal bills. Even with these benefits, many military members do not earn near what their civilian counterparts make.
It is true that a member and his/her family makes more money when the service member is deployed. This is known as 'combat pay' and often is only a few hundred dollars extra each month. While this sounds like a perk, consider yourself. Would you risk your life for $600 a month?
Even further, many do not know that a service member with a rank of E-5 or lower only makes about $1,500 a month. Because of this, most qualify for government assistance, putting a financial strain on the family.
3. Length of Service
When you decide to sign up for the military, you aren't joining for life. Commitment times vary greatly, but most commonly can be as little as two years. Additional years of service are added if a member decides to pursue schooling or special training, or simply decides they are not ready to be done just yet. A member may also go to a Reserve unit, meaning they are to be readily available should the military need to use them.
It should be known that although you are not joining for life and there are many ways to serve your time and return back to civilian world, your job means you are putting your life on the line willingly all of the time. This realization could potentially mean that you are in fact joining for life.
4. The Working Side
The military is not a 9-5 job. Making plans is nearly impossible, and schedules change constantly. It is rare for a member to go in to work and be home at the same time every single day like many civilian jobs allow. Even when not deployed, a member may not see his/her family for extended periods of time as they are to spend nights sleeping in the field, or leave for work before their family is awake and come back home late into night. However, just like civilians, military members receive 30 days of paid leave per year, as well as six weeks of maternity leave for female members and ten days paternity leave for fathers.
Many also believe that military jobs and training have little connection to the civilian world, leaving military members struggling to find work once retiring from the service. This is also not true, as 91% of military jobs have civilian counterparts, and many skills learned during military experiences are relatable to many civilian job opportunities.
5. Women
Although women do not have the opportunity to pursue all of the same experiences as men do in the military, across all of the different branches about 79% of military jobs are available to women, as women make up close to 20% of today's Armed Forces.
6. The Spouses
Despite what shows like Army Wives make many of us think, the real military is nothing like what is shown on television. Officer's wives don't always dress super conservatively while attending meetings, coffees, and functions all day everyday while enlisted wives are poorly behaved and structured individuals making their husbands look bad with every move they make. In reality, there is no difference between an officer and enlisted military member's spouse. One is not classy, snobby, and rich while the other is cheap, inferior, and lazy. As a military spouse, each and every one is exactly the same: someone who fell in love with someone who happens to be in the military.
Although the military life is exciting and fun to be a part of, these misconceptions are struggles that Armed Service family's must deal with every single day. Like Theodore Roosevelt once said.
Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty...I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.And the military life is just another one of those things.
#2--you either get BAH for dependants or not. It doesn't matter how many are in your family. When you get married, you automatically receive BAH for "w/dependants" so, children do not play a factor. If both are in the service, they each receive non-dependant BAH.
ReplyDeleteAlso, #6--depending on who the BN CMR's wife is, yes you have to dress up to coffees, steering committee meetings or FRG functions. The BN CMR wife always sets the rules. I've had laid back wives who simply say khakis or a sundress are acceptable and I've also had wives who are very old school Army and still host the high tea with white gloves. With that, the BN CMRs wife is also the one who sets the ground rules on who (what rank) can attend the coffees. In our first unit, it was only for officer spouses 0-3 and up. So as a PL wife, I was excluded. But once my husband was a CPT, I was in. Another unit was laid back and allowed E-7's and up to attend. It really depends. And that can cause a serious issue between wives with their husbands rank.
ReplyDeleteI've lived on posts where the GENs wife has literally held a emerging to tell all wives/husbands whose spouse is in a command position how to dress in public...PX, commissary, etc. That was not an enjoyable assignment.
Ha ha, autocorrect. Held a meeting*
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