Common misconceptions and mistakes WITHIN a military community taken from overheard (read as eavesdropped) conversations and my own stupidity:
- Commissary-pronounced com-i-sary, not com-mis-er-ary like I did first time my eyes spied the alien building. After my first experience battling the aisles with a screaming baby amidst retirees, my personal pronunciation felt more appropriate. Miserable indeed.
- Not all acronyms are read as words. Ex: SOC is spoken as "sock", AAFES as "A-Fees" but BAH is not "bah" as in bah-humbug, no matter what low dollar amount is associated with it.
- Dependents do not have to call anyone sir or ma'am...we do so out of respect or because we have heard stories of how you behave if we don't.
- Believe it or not, you don't have to do anything associated with your spouse's job. These are not the military days of yore where your kick ass coffee cake has a spot on their records . If you send food into his job, it is strictly because you want people to experience your kick ass coffee cake. It is for you...not him.
- This sign has confused many an officer's spouse. It does not mean general as in "any officer" but a general as in "one who wears stars". Note: this reserved spot will 9 times out of 10 be empty because the men and women who have earned the right to park here are generally working too hard to use it.
- Fatigues-pronounced fa-teags, as in tired, not fat-i-gews. No, this one wasn't me. But sure is funny.
- Spouses do not wear rank. Show your experience, by all means, but you DO NOT outrank anyone outside of your own home, where you are queen and master over all and rule with an iron fist. We know because the same is true in our kingdom as well.
- Your life is not like the show Army Wives. No one is here to do your hair and makeup.
- That moving every 1-4 years ain't so bad. It is. It blows. Especially when you have kids. But you put your big girl panties on and deal. And you learn some tricks along the way.
- Everyone knows more than you. Not true. We are all lost and sometimes choose to act confident because it makes it all seem like we have it under control. Smoke and mirrors.
Ha, when Matt was first commissioned I misinterpreted the sign started to pull into the "General Officer" parking spot, at MAFB Bx, as a matter of fact...I thought he was going to have a coronary trying to stop me. I thought it was weird they had a spot for peons, but hey, I'd take it. :)
ReplyDelete"Back in the old days"....(yes, I said it!)....there were "any 2LT" spots at the club. That usually kept the GO spots open!! ;)
ReplyDeleteMy GO spouse neighbor accosted someone parked in the WG/CC spot at the commissary/BX after numerous experiences with unauthorized parkers in her husband's spot, only to find out the occupant was a young lady who married a young Airman 2 days prior (David's Bridal bag in the back seat) and she had to go back home to TN the next day. The Airman had run in to pick up his dry cleaning and left his new bride in the car. She was crying and apologizing. My neighbor turned her original displeasure into a positive moment with a big smile and a "WELCOME TO KEESLER!!" She proceeded to tell the young lady about Heartlink and all the other great programs that the AF has for new spouses and that we're all part of one big AF family.
We all know many other GO spouses may not have handled the situation the same way. These are the ones that give leadership spouses a bad name and perpetuate the stereotypes....Reference bullet #3.
I saw a spot at the Tyndall Co-misery that was reserved for Expecting Mothers....nice!
ReplyDeletetotally did the General Officer spot mistake! And love the Army Wives comment!
ReplyDeleteStationed at Scott AFB, I regularly parked in the spot marked "AWS" which was really reserved for the Air Weather Service commander or someone like that... I told Mike I was sure it meant "A Weather Spouse". He disagreed, so I just didn't tell him if I parked there. It was so close to the building, I couldn't help it!! :)
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