Ramblings

After talking to a few other military wives recently, I have realized that I have very different, and sometimes unpopular opinions about a few aspects of military life.  

For instance, some women I know like to wear their husband's dog tags.  Others have them attached to their keychain, or hanging from the rear-view mirror in their mini-van.  Maybe these are the same kind of women who wore their boyfriend's class ring around their neck in high school, or something like that.....but dog tags?  In case you don't know- they aren't given to the airmen as a keepsake or a novelty item.  They are given and worn as a type of identification, and are used to identify and label the bodies of the dead in combat.  They are given in pairs....not so that the airman's girlfriend can have one....but so that if he is killed one remains with the body and the other is taken to begin family notification.  They also have private information on them that would make it easy to steal someone's identity if they got into the wrong hands.  I haven't seen Marshall's dog tags since the day he graduated Basic....but I know he'll be taking them to the desert.  I have no desire to wear them as a badge of honor as a military wife- what they represent is just too serious to me.

Another unpopular opinion that I have involves camouflage.  I simply don't understand the fascination with people who are not in the military wearing a camo pattern on anything. You can find camo almost anywhere now: Walmart, Old Navy, Target, etc.  I know some people wear it to hunt (and that woodland pattern just screams REDNECK to me!).  I feel like some guys who aren't in the military wear it because it makes them feel more macho, or important.  I heard of one woman who took one of her hushand's old uniforms and made a camo strapless minidress that she wore to his homecoming ceremony.  HOLY MOLY I wish I had seen that because I would have had to take a picture.  Besides the fact that it is a bad fashion choice, I think it also represents more than just a pattern on cloth.  Many men in the military have died wearing that pattern....I have no desire to dress my baby in a little baby camo outfit.  We have other ways to show that we are proud of Marshall being in the Air Force than trying to dress like him.

I'm sure some of them look at me and think "Ew, doesn't she own a hair dryer?" or "Doesn't she know that tie-dye went out of style in the 70's?".  Eh- to each their own.  I'll keep wearing my tie-dyed shirts with wet hair, and they can keep wearing camo and dog tags.