Sisterhood

Emblem of 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division

Today was the first time I met the other spouses of the 1st Brigade Headquarters officers. I guess officially it's named the "Officers' Spouses' Club", but realistically it's the old-school Officers' Wives' Club. I'm sure there are men who could be included and would be welcomed, but what man really wants to go to brunch with 25 married women? All the ladies were very welcoming and were happy to explain to the newbies what was going on. Being new to all this, I can already see how all the wives support each other - especially during deployments. I received no less than three personal invitations to different women's houses for coffee, a shoulder to cry on, or whatever else I needed. The brigade commander's wife (REALLY important woman - she heads up the family support for the 3900 soldiers in the brigade) gave each of us a poem called "Sisterhood." I can't find the author's name, but I'd like to share it with you.

"Sisterhood"

I am an Army wife - a member of that Sisterhood of women who have had the courage to watch their men march into battle and the strength to survive until their return. Our sorority knows no rank for we earn our membership with a marriage license traveling over miles or over nations to begin a new life with our soldier husbands. Within days we can turn a barren, echoing building into a home, and though our quarters are inevitably white walled and unpapered, we decorate with the treasures of our travels for we shop the markets of the globe. Using hammer and nail, we tack our pictures to the wall and our roots to the floor as firmly as if we had lived there for a lifetime. We hold a family together by the bootstraps and raise the best of brats, instilling into them the motto, Home is Togetherness, whether motel or guest house, apartment or duplex.

As Army wives we soon realize that the only good in Good-Bye is the Hello again. For as salesmen for freedom our husbands are often on the road leaving us behind for a week, a month, an assignment. During the separation we guard the home fort existing till the homecoming. Unlike our civilian counterparts, we measure time not by age but by Tours - married at Knox, a baby born at Bliss, a promotion in Missouri. We plant trees and never see them grow tall. Work on projects that are completed long after our departure and enhance our community for the betterment of those who come after us. We leave a part of ourselves at every stop.

Through experience we have learned to pack a suitcase, a car, or "Hold Baggage" and live indefinitely from the contents within and though our fingers are sore from the patches we have sewn and the silver we have shined - our hands are always ready to help those around us.

Women of Peace, we pray for a world in harmony, for the flag that leads our men into battle will also blanket them in death. Yet we are an optimistic group, thinking about the good and forgetting the bad, cherishing yesterday while anticipating tomorrow. Never rich by monetary standards, our hearts are overflowing with a wealth of experiences common among those united by the special tradition of military life. We pass on this legacy to every Army bride, welcoming her with outstretched arms and love and friendship from one Sister to another, sharing in the bounty of our unique fulfilling Army way of life.