What we had thought of as only a job ran much deeper. In becoming civilians again, we finally understood what it meant to be military. It did not take long to realize that, although we had taken ourselves out of the Marine Corps, the Marine Corps was not easily going to be taken out of us. We constantly talked about all our friends and past adventures, and how all the men in our hometown needed haircuts. My husband and I went to work in civilian jobs and tried to get on with life, but no matter what we did, something just did not feel right. Shopping trips were no longer to the commissary or the exchange, and the checkout girl at the local Food Lion did not care a thing about seeing my identification card. I missed the comforting sounds of another family living next door, who could always be counted on to lend a cup of milk or good cheer. Instead of enjoying the newfound peace and quiet, I woke up in the mornings missing the sound of the children whose delighted screams always echoed from the playground behind our base housing duplex. We rented a house in the country with a big yard and no neighbors nearby. In the days and weeks that would follow, I reasoned with myself we had simply been so excited about our move back home that the reality of it was destined to pale in comparison. But, after pulling off the interstate exit to our hometown, instead of the exuberance expected, my husband and I both felt strangely empty. So, once again, we loaded up our (this time much larger) Budget Truck and headed back to Civilian Town, USA. The Marine Corps was no place to raise a family. When my husband’s end of active service date approached and talks turned toward the idea of reenlistment, I did not give it a second thought.
So it went for almost four years of my life: duty, deployments and the inevitable sick child and mechanical malfunctions that always accompanied them. “Can’t they see I need him here?" But the Marine Corps needed him more, and off he went. The Marine Corps however, assured me I could do just fine on my own by sending my husband off on deployments. A boy, I thought, who needed two parents around to raise him. About a year and a half into our marriage, my husband and I became the proud parents of a beautiful baby boy.
And as if all that were not enough, then came deployments. “All night long?!" I asked incredulously. I thought surely my husband was joking when he first explained he would have to routinely stand 24-hour duties away from home. So, dutifully as all military wives do, I memorized my husband’s social security number and carried my identification card religiously. You could hear the neighbor’s television set and their toilet flush! I also soon found my identity was not really Barbara anymore, but the dependent of LCpl Bates. Having grown up in the country on acres of land, it was a surprise to me that families in base housing were herded together in duplexes, triplexes and worse. Oh, my husband still looked just as handsome in his high and tight and Dress Blues, and I was still feeling blissful about being a newlywed, however it did not take long until I decided the Marine Corps and I were just not going to get along.
#SERIAL STORIES LADY SWINGS LICENSE#
But despite my initial fascination with the military, when a marriage license and a Budget Truck found me halfway across the country as a new bride of Uncle Sam, I was less than charmed. Perhaps then it was no surprise to anyone when some years later, I was again charmed by the stories of adventure and ideals of patriotism another man in uniform brought into my life.
I coveted the stories of my father’s youth, growing up on military bases and seeing the world. Long before meeting my Marine Corps husband I had gypsy feet from my childhood spent with a father who, after growing up in the Navy, could never remain in one place too long. I am the granddaughter of a Korean War Veteran and the daughter of a military brat. My name is Barbara and I am a proud Marine Corps wife.
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