The Worlds of Army Wives: Where I'm Writing From.

     Before I begin I want you to take a minute. Close your eyes and picture to yourself what an Army wife looks like. What do you see? Do you see one of the characters from the TV series "Army Wives"? Do you see the a friend whom you know is an Army wife? Or do you see on older version like Rosie the Riveter? That classic 1940's wife who is holding down the home front while our country's men engage in a long and dangerous war. No matter what you see I bet you automatically imagine this Army wife being married to an active duty soldier. One who lives on a post such at Ft. Bragg, NC or Ft. Stewart, GA.

     This is the stereotypical Army wife that I am looking to break people of.  I'm not saying that your wrong or that those Army wives/spouses don't matter. I want our nation to take a better look at our National Guard spouses and soldiers and expand our conscious thought to them as well. 

     Our soldiers in the National Guard wear the same uniform as our active duty soldiers. When at war they do the same jobs and face the same dangers. The only difference, to an extent, is in training and actual careers.

     Our soldiers who are active duty are, during their contractual time, career soldiers. Their only job is to train and "fight" in their Military Occupational Specialty (MOS).  Their spouses have become accustomed to the demands of soldiers and being an active duty Army wife.

     If a soldier is newly married his wife is living in a community with other Army wives who understand and are willing to help her adapt to the new life. They have an active Family Readiness Group (FRG) on hand and usually the post they live on or near carries all of the essentials they will need.

    Life is much different for our National Guard soldiers and families. These soldiers have civilian jobs they attend to all but one weekend a month and two full weeks a year ( depending on if they are sent to further training through out the year). Their wives and spouses live in the civilian population have civilian friends and only participate in the FRG if their soldier will be deploying.

     You cannot forget that among the very small National Guard population there is an even smaller amount of active National Guard soldiers (AGR). These soldier are the full-time staff that runs the states National Guard. Their days are just like that of our active duty soldiers and their wives face the same challenges and demands the only difference is the lack of support they have about them. 

     This very small group of AGR wives is where I stand and where I'll be writing from. We live in the civilian communities and have civilian friends but our soldiers are always working in uniform or training or being sent somewhere to do something for the National Guard. Our lives are very much like active duty Army wives just with out the support system.

    I know this intro wasn't very brief but it's here to have the understand of the different types of Army wives we have in our ranks. Each one of us faces different challenges but at the end of the day we are all Army wives.