This is a scene that will forever be in my memories of being a Navy Wife. How many countless mornings, did I drop Senior off before he got underway, or how many times did I pass this on a daily basis going to and from work.
I loved being apart of the active duty community, I loved feeling the sense of family with the ships we were on and our divisions. We were all so close knit. Parties at this one or that ones house on the weekends, week night softball games....yea, those were the days all right.
I was so proud to be able to see something every day that most people never got to see. Those majestic ships, the guys standing in formation for morning muster, and then standing at attention for the raising of "The Colors". Going on board like it was a second home, Taking Senior dinner and hanging out on his duty days. Once, He had the mid watch on the Quarter Deck, and I drove out to sit outside with him in the wee hours of the morning.
It makes me sad to think of the way our government is depleting our forces, and the readiness of our military. We were once a mighty fighting force, now we can hardly afford to pay our troops. And the moral is rumored to be at an all time low. The kids in now will never know the Navy that I knew. Today it is all high tech, with email and chats... A Navy wife's biggest fear is the email being down...
She will never know what it is like to get numbered letters a stack at a time. She will never know what is like to get a surprise phone call saying the ship pulled in. Now with video chats, she will never know what its like to go six months without seeing your sailor. Once that ship untied, and got underway..that was it, until the end of deployment.
Yea, all those days are long gone..seeing that picture brought it all back to me..memories forever etched in time.
-JUGM
