Better Late Than Never

The other night I went to a meeting on post for spouses of soldiers who are deployed on a MiTT (Military Transition Team). Since there are many of these teams, there were spouses there from all stages of the deployment process. Some of their husbands had just left for training, some were anxiously awaiting R&R, and others - like myself - were on the downward slope. It was an interesting meeting and I'm glad I attended, but it was more geared toward those just beginning this deployment. I mean, telling me all of the stuff that's available to me during deployment would have been nice 9 months ago. Granted, I'm kind of a veteran at this type of thing, so I knew most of it already, but there were a few things I would have liked to have known. For instance, I am entitled to 16 hours of free childcare per child per month on post! That would have been nice to know. Oh well, better late than never, I guess....

And just for the record, people ask some really dumb questions. I know they say the only dumb questions are the ones that don't get asked, but I'd have to disagree with that. I've heard some dumb questions that should really never have been asked. I can't get into it here because they deal with procedures and stuff that shouldn't be posted online, but come on folks, let's use our brains, huh? Sheesh.

Still, it's nice to know that the Army is starting to recognize that MiTT wives need something like this. Since our soldiers are deployed in small teams that come from all over, we don't really have a formal FRG group to keep us informed of everything. And things are different with a MiTT team than with a traditional deployed unit. So it's good for the people just starting out to have these get togethers, I just wish they'd thought of it sooner!