Military Mayhem

The Army is special. They have their own set of rules and regulations and time old traditions. In many ways these are great and help keep everyone safe and in order, but in some ways they are irritating and old fashioned. Joining the military family you have to learn a new language of acronyms and new way of behaving.

I remember going to my husbands BOLC (Basic Officer Leader Course) graduation. They let families come several days early to experience some of the things our soldiers had gone through and do some training of our own. They sat all the spouses down and went over lists of things that would be expected of us and the appropriate way to behave in certain situations. As my husband put it, “it’s like trying to drink from a fire hose.”

One of the first events I went to was one for the officers and their spouses. It was an all day event and I was petrified about doing something or saying something wrong. I pretty much sat with my mouth shut or stood against a wall.

To give a little more background before the rest of this story you’ll need to know a bit more about me. I spent my whole college education working as a custodian to pay my way through. I’d get up early every morning before classes started or professors came in to work. I would go clean classrooms, offices, and theaters in the Fine Arts Center on the campus. When my husband went back to get his masters at the same university I got a job as a Custodian Supervisor overseeing students that were doing what I once did. My eye is trained to walk into a room and spot what needs to be cleaned.

So, standing in this room surrounded by officers in their dress uniform and spouses in Sunday best I did what I do best and noticed the mess. All day I watched the trash cans fill, expecting at any time to see a custodian walk in and take care of them before they started to overflow. That’s just what should happen when there’s an event in your building, that’s what I would do. One trashcan was getting piled above the rim and almost to the point of toppling over. It was driving me nuts and finally I couldn’t handle it any more. On the next break I went straight to it to see if an extra bag was hanging over the rim, something I had been taught to do and had taught my students as well. Thankfully there was an extra bag and I was starting to pull up the overfilled one to solve this issue when my husband came over. “What are you doing?” he asked

“I’m just taking care of this before it all falls out and gets worse,” I said in an isn’t it obvious and aren’t I great for helping out tone.

“Well, stop, it’s not your job to do that.” He whispered back somewhat annoyed.

Me, not catching on to his hint started to pull the bag up again, “there’s an extra bag I’m just going to take this out and leave it behind the can so I can put in a clean bag.”

“It’s not something you should be doing though.”

“It’s ok, I can do it quick. This is what I’m good at you know. It’s something I can do to help.”

And with that I had the bag out and on the ground to tie it up.

“Yes, but it’s not appropriate,” he said more flustered.

My face reddened as I finally realized what he was getting at; this was not an appropriate action for an officer’s spouse. They sure as heck did not cover this topic in the spouses BOLC section!

I tried to hurry and lift the bag behind the trashcan, hoping no one had seen me. It was at this point I realized the bottom had burst open. Trash was spilling out all over the floor. I didn’t even know what to do at that point I was already completely embarrassed at doing the wrong thing and now, here we were, a pile of trash spilled at our feet.

Tears began to flow down my face as we bent down and tried to pick it up. The problem, I found, was much bigger than a few wrappers and cans. The floor was wet from all the partially finished drinks that had been tossed in the trash. My attempt to make things better failed big time and I’d made an embarrassment of my husband and my self. I spent the rest of that break crying in the bathroom and questioning if I was really cut out for this military life.

If you’d like to read about how I survived my husband’s deployment check this story out.

Or if you’d like to read a fiction story that has some military in it click on this story below.