Military Families

Its official..he re-enlisted while deployed for another 5 years....That will bring him to his retirement...But he is thinking of staying longer...Lord give me the strength.

This deployment has been difficult..I guess first ones (for me not him) are.  I never knew what to expect.  I dont know what to expect when he gets home.  I had a taste of what it will be like when he was home for R&R beginning of September for the birth of our new son.  He was jumpy and didnt seem him..but at the same time I could see him down in there..Happy to say, however, by the time he had to go back..he was pretty much himself...And since going back they have been packing to come home, so really their time was already up when he got R&R.

He goes back to Ft Hood for a short bit and we got a new duty station to Kansas soon after.

I cant wait for Christmas because he will be home with me here in NY.  I have decided to not return to Hood because it wouldnt be worth it just to move again.

I dont know 20yrs of this..how do you women do it?  Hubby already has over half that from before I met him...and these last few years of being an Army Wife (HOOAH!) has been a rather tough learning experience.  All I got figured out is..dont try to make sense out of the military and just go day by day something always changes.  No wonder we have the toughest job.

Take care all...Thank you for all your words of wisdom and advice...We are a unique breed of women!!!

George Hamilton Wilmot 8/29/08

If you want to get housing on post, you definitely want to put your name in as soon as possible for the waiting list. They have older housing (with shorter waiting list) and they have newer housing (with longer waiting list). They are currently still building new housing.

If you want to live off post, there are several options. Junction City is on one side of post, Ogden is on the other side. Abileen is next to JC, but I don't really know much about it. We haven't been over there, so I'm not sure what it's like.  Junction City is somewhat small and doesn't have a lot going on. It does have a hospital. There are some nice parts (near the hospital) and some not so nice parts (more in town). Ogden is very small, and has little to do as well. Manhattan is next to Ogden.

We live in Manhattan (right at the edge of Manhattan closes to post) in some new townhouses that were just recently built. They are in the process of building more, but I'm not sure when they will be finished. Manhattan is a college town (Kansas State) and has a lot to do. There are more stores in Manhattan than in JC or Ogden.

There are 5 elementary schools and one middle school on post. There are all part of the JC school district. Everyone here has been really nice so far. The only issue I've had so far was trying to get our son enrolled in CYS. There was some confusion between the school and CYS, so it made it a bit difficult, but we managed to get it taken care of eventually. 

If you have any other questions just let me know and I'll try to answer them for you. We just got here in July, so I'm still learning some things.

Thank you to mom2jess_n_ky for my beautiful siggy!                                                                                                                                                                                             

Thanks Stacy...I will have to look you up when we get there...

It will be nice to be in a smaller area...Ft Hood is massive and the area is so sprawling it is mind boggling...We lived in Killeen and Copperas Cove which on each side border the base.  And our hometown of Binghamton NY is a smaller city but everything is close and i feel closter fobic (sp)....

The thing we find we have an issue with as far as base housing is we really need a 4-5 bedroom place.  And now one of our closest friends..a soldier with my husband..is being stationed at riley the same time...actually there are alot of my husbands unit E-4's with privates...and hubby is above that...just a question.  Im fairly new to this whole army wife thing (hubby was in before we got married and took a hiatus for a few years).  Im learning a lot, but i seem to be catching on quick i guess...LOL!

Thanks again!!!!

George Hamilton Wilmot 8/29/08