March 27, 2007
Tuesday PM

I can't even begin to say how mad I am when I watch the news everyday. Yes, our boys have it bad but let's not forget the wives. Think about it if they must wait 4,6,9 months to get seen for basic things, then how long do you think their wives are who aren't in the military wait? We're at the end of the line besides the OB dept then we're at the top of the list only because we're carrying another soldier or airmen - whatever. It's just getting me mad that all the news programs are only saying how bad it is for the soldiers and not their wives.

Can you imagine waiting 10 weeks for an ultrasound test to see if you have either a fibroid in your uterus or if it's a precancerous lump? How about going to the ER and after waiting 9 hours to get seen being told to see your regular doctor who has a 4 month wait, when you're in pain then?

Being a military housewife/mom/chef etc... no one fully accepts you. Even in the military we're second class and are not worth time. Heck while going to get my husband's P.O.A before deployment the Jag officer warned him that I could sell all of our stuff and charge up bills under only his name and wanted to know how trustworthy I was before he would give us one, basically calling me a cheating wife to my face. But he was an officer so you just smile and repeat the request for what you wanted.

I'm not a flag bearing, steel face, military wife. I'm also not a pity me crying sob. I'm one who believes that for everything my husband does do, he should do with the knowledge that I'm being treated with respect not any more or less than him.

Those yellow ribbons you have aren't helping us any. We would rather have you donate the 5, 10 or whatever dollars to the VA to help them lobby for better services for us, that way at least someone else wouldn't get rich for a cause that's not theirs.

I find it wrong in so many ways that a contract worker in Iraq can get $80,000 a year for a job that our men only get paid $20,000-30,000 for. We know we need more soldiers but yet this year they only got a 2.2% pay raise mostly because they said the war funding was sucking up all the money. The system is braking, something has to give. More people are getting out than are coming into the service. Benefits are getting cut here and there.

What's wrong in the world when a government employee makes the same or less than Wal-mart employees? I know we chose to join and to live like this, but heck people it's Wal-mart. Really a 16 year old with no experience at Wal-mart is safer, less trained, and paid more then E1's and E2's.

God save our country from itself.

Amber Leslie Williams Baldwin
Lakewood, WA




Received March 26, 2007 - Published March 27, 2007

About: Army wife and mother of two

 

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