I agree ladies ... the gift our Military families give to our country is truly amazing leaving their families and loved ones for months at a time to go and put their very life on the line in very scary and traumatic environments in attempts to protecting the rights and lives of others who are being oppressed in other countries .... the things my man has seen around the world, the treatment of women and children, the violence even though he no longer serves he carries that around in his head all the time one thing to see it on the news another thing to see it first hand and be powerless to stop if because you have 'orders' not to engage and what not

I am grateful that I met my man at the end of his active tours of duty due because the worry about him being gone so long would have done me in ~ they almost sent him back to Afghanistan in 2007 for one last tour and just the idea had me frozen and fortunately, if you can use that word, due to something going on in my health at the time he was able to get compassionate leave to stay back until we knew for sure what I was dealing with ~ and he retired the following year!