Yeah, you probably all already know this, but what can I say? It’s on my mind, and I must log it on the webs. You can’t – simply can’t! – do the Army without flexibility. Patience? Yes, it’s a very good thing. It’s very helpful to have in dealings with the Army, but it’s not quite a necessity. Believe me, please, because I’ve been working on building up my patience, with God’s help, for the last couple years, but I definitely haven’t arrived yet. I cannot yet call myself a patient person, however much I try. Thus I conclude: Patience is good, but you can survive without it. Flexibility on the other hand, is a must.

As a civilian with no close relatives in the service (other than a cousin I never knew very well), I never would have guessed how poorly organized the Army can be, at times. No, scratch that. Almost always the Army is annoyingly disorganized. I’ve heard people make fun of the government, but by marrying into the Army my eyes have really been opened to how bad it can get. I thought, of all things “government,” the military would be one thing well-handled. By that line of thinking, I’m pretty worried about the other aspects of government by now.

I’ve had to be flexible, if not patient, quite a bit. My husband, of course, has had to deal with about a hundred more instances of disorganization. Anyway, here are a few that have annoyed me:

• Our wedding. His leave package did not get approved until almost a week before the wedding! We had made all kinds of payments on the wedding, the wedding night hotel, the flight and resort for the honeymoon, and a week before the wedding we still weren’t even positive that he’d be allowed to leave base! They lost his packet three times before it was finally reviewed, and then if I remember correctly he had to make some changes to it at their request, very last minute. I was sure they were going to treat him as if he’d only just submitted it for the first time and deny it because it was too short of notice.
• The return from his second deployment. We military folk all understand that though the government is great about getting our soldiers to the battlefield quickly (wherever that may be), coming home is another issue. Dates and times for homecoming are almost never certain until a few hours before arrival. They can’t seem to get it organized! And when I went to his homecoming, I wasn’t yet married to or even dating him, and I had no idea what I was getting into. My now-in-laws and I bonded during those days of waiting, though.
• Tuesday. We sat in the car together for about three hours waiting to figure out why he had not been called back to work, where his ride was, when his ride would be arriving, and whether or not we could leave and go home for a bite to eat before his ride arrived. Ugh!

Those are just the biggies. Flexibility is an every day thing for us, though. Whether it’s changes in the training schedule or just changes in the daily release time, meetings announced at the last minute, or even surprise off-days, we have to be constantly ready to take what we get and make the best of it. Roll with it.

Are any of you associated with the military – do you have any examples you’d like to share?