Army Wives Disgust Me!!!

at least those who give the rest of us a bad name

Disclaimer: THIS IS A RANT! Before you break out the matches, lighters, or flamethrowers, please actually read the following......


Army Wives disgust me, it's true. What? Oh, you thought maybe I forgot that I am an Army Wife? Nope, I haven't forgotten. Nor do I disgust myself, with a few exceptions. No, I don't mean all Army Wives disgust me. There are alot of them that do though, and most of them should be glad that I don't know who they are and very glad that I've learned to at least partially control my temper.

Let me back up a second here. What I'm talking about here is infidelity, cheating, whoring around. Up until about a year ago, I had a wrong idea about infidelity in the military. I had heard all of the statistics that the military has a much higher divorce rate than the "average" in America, and that alot of it was because of frequent absences by the servicemember and rampant infidelity. I always assumed that it was the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines doing the cheating. After all, most of us have heard the stories of the sailor who has a girlfriend in every port, and some have heard about the guys stationed in the Phillipines who buy girls from the fathers for the time they are there, or about the women in Korea, or about TDY (Temporary Duty) really meaning Temporarily Divorce Your spouse. Then we moved to Ft. Hood and the blinders were peeled from my eyes.

I got here and discovered that most of the infidelity in the military is perpetrated by the wives (and husbands) left at home. The soldiers who are over in Iraq are fighting and dying for their families, their children, their wives, counting the days until they can come home and see their beloveds face again. And all too many of their wives are here at home spreading their legs for anyone that comes along. It's not limited to those who don't have children, many of them do have children. Several have had children while their husbands were gone, or are pregnant when they come back.

In the last year, I have waited tables at a small restaurant and delivered pizzas for two different companies. At the restaurant, we had customers who would come in with their children and their boyfriends (they actually told us their husbands were gone). As a delivery driver I have seen more things than I would ever wish on anyone. My largest tip just made me want to throw up, slap someone, and cry all at the same time. I've heard stories of soldiers coming home to find their wives dating other men (or women), living with someone else, or just plain gone.

In this day of high technology, no longer must a soldier wait weeks for the arrival of a Dear John letter. Now wives can send emails, chat online, talk on cell phones, or as at least one wife I've heard of did, send their husband a videotape of them having sex with two other men as their way of telling the soldier they are leaving. (As a bonus, this soldier put the video on in the common area to watch it with a bunch of soldiers from his unit, as they all enjoyed seeing each others messages from home. The soldier went out back with his weapon and shot himself after watching. I believe it was not fatal, more's the pity for the wife--she couldn't collect on his life insurance.)

When the 4th Infantry Division deployed en masse from Ft. Hood last year, something strange happened. There was a ceremony in the afternoon to say goodbye, and that same evening there were 4 times as many women in the bars and clubs in the surrounding area, looking for someone to take home. There are not words in this world to describe how much that disgusts me. I made a comment to friends awhile back that as long as the military deploys, batteries are a safe investment. I thought it was pretty funny, but now I just think it's sad because too many wives are not satisfied with that. Instead of going to the store for replacement batteries, they go to the bar for replacement men.

There is another creature I despise. It's the deployment predator. The men (and some women) who deliberately prey upon the wives (and husbands) left at home. They ooze charm; compliments and praise flow out with every exhalation. They spend hours, days, even weeks probing gently to discover if a spouse is gone (if they don't already know) and building your confidence and trust in them. They laugh and joke with you in an attempt to make you comfortable with them and waiting for their chance. The predator can be someone you've just met, or even your closest friend (or that of the soldier). Sometimes they are difficult to detect, especially when you are vulnerable. Sometimes they are even soldiers or spouses themselves.

So why do these Army Wives make me want to bash their heads against a brick wall? For one thing, what they do is just plain awful, but mostly it's BECAUSE THEY MAKE THE REST OF US LOOK BAD!!! Those of us who care about our soldier, who long for their return, who practically imprison themselves at home and spurn human contact for fear of temptation. Those of us that are not whores. I believe that most of us (Army Wives) do care about our husbands enough to deal with the situations we are in. Unfortunately, there are enough of those whorish floozies out there that they make others think less of us, and some consider us easy prey.

At any rate, I will be glad to go into another area of employment where I hopefully will not have to see so much of this disgusting behavior. And I think I'll be even happier to leave this area behind before I am made over in their image.
2,473 views 17 replies
Reply #1 Top
It is a common illness in every military town.
It is not very contagious once you are fully aware of it.
Reply #2 Top
LadyCleve: Excellent rant. It's all very sad and very true.

One of the guys who works with my husband has a wife and toddler who still live in Guam. He had been gone for almost 6 months and has not received one letter or one care package from her. When he calls she is NEVER home. I'm not certain that he has talked to her once since he deployed. His parents live in Guam, too but they are unable to get ahold of her to see the grandbaby. In addition to never getting care packages from home, he can't go pick up CDs or snacks or other comfort items because their bank account is always completely drained. Another guy he works with is divorcing his wife because he has discovered she got a boyfriend when he deployed . . . he received his credit card statement and it was full of out of state hotel stays. They also have a toddler.

It makes me so frickin' sad and angry . . . these women are betraying their husbands in their greatest time of need. It's sickening. They need to know that their family is OK and that their wives love them and can't wait for them to be home. I can't understand the kind of vile woman that would do that to a man who spends his days getting shot at so that she and the children can live in comfort. Arrgghh!!

Excellent rant, LadyCleve. You got it right and you put it far better than I could.
Reply #3 Top
It makes me so frickin' sad and angry . . . these women are betraying their husbands in their greatest time of need. It's sickening. They need to know that their family is OK and that their wives love them and can't wait for them to be home. I can't understand the kind of vile woman that would do that to a man who spends his days getting shot at so that she and the children can live in comfort. Arrgghh!!


This is what gets me about the whole idea. Women like you, dharma, and ladycleve are as much to be commended as the soldiers themselves for keeping the home while your husbands are gone.

I think a married man's greatest fear is that his wife will cheat on him. We don't give our hearts out easily, and they're likely to be absolutely crushed if a woman to whom we've made such a commitment betrays us like that.

Of course, having said that, if there's a military guy reading this: buy your wife some FLOWERS once in awhile and call her while you're on deployment! While this won't stop a cheating heart, it does SEEM at least like it'd make her feel a bit more appreciated.

Getting married is easy; maintaining the marriage is the tough part.
Reply #4 Top
Getting married is easy; maintaining the marriage is the tough part.


Amen!

Reply #5 Top
1. Not that I feel I have to (as you were only attacking a certain segment of this particular population), but allow me to be the first to stick up for my wife. I feel she is one of the ones that Gideon would say should be commended, and is most definitely not one of the ones the good Lady is ranting about.

2. I don't know if the story you tell of the attempted suicide is true or not, but even if the self-inflicted wounds *had* been fatal, she probably could not have collected on his life insurance for suicide.

3. At PLDC, I was roommates with a guy that the following happened to: He was at Special Forces selection, but was dropped after Land Navigation (something about a freak blizzard that stranded two other guys under collapsed trees, and made it too difficult to get to his last point in time). So, he arrived home earlier than expected, to his meager barely-furnished apartment... to find his car wrecked and his wife and some random guy getting it on on his futon. He kicked the living shit out of the guy, and was sent to PLDC to "cool down" by his command, where he had to get special dispensation time off in order to get the divorce under way. His command didn't punish him at all, though... and good on him.
Reply #6 Top
1. Not that I feel I have to (as you were only attacking a certain segment of this particular population), but allow me to be the first to stick up for my wife. I feel she is one of the ones that Gideon would say should be commended, and is most definitely not one of the ones the good Lady is ranting about.


pseudo,

I'm sure she is, and she deserves to be commended as well
Reply #7 Top
I have to share a little story . . . it's funny to me, but maybe it shouldn't be.

A couple of weeks ago my husband called me early in the morning. When the phone rang, a man picked up and said, in a sleepy voice, "Hello? What do you want?" The hair stood up on the back of my husband's neck, and his face flushed red. He started going into "kill mode."

After a brief exchange, he discovered that he had been connected to a different phone number (when they call using DSN phones, they call a number at Hickam AFB here in Hawaii and someone there connects them to our phone). He immediately tried again and got me. He was still flustered by the time he talked to me.

I felt sorry for him, but it was kind of funny, too.

*now I really am evil, huh?*
Reply #8 Top
*now I really am evil, huh?*


Oh yes...you are definitely evil...lol
Reply #9 Top
*now I really am evil, huh?*


nah.....

pseudosoldier: Thank you, it's so nice to see a soldier standing up for their wife. I don't see enough of that, and it helps me remember the good aspects.

There was a guy I worked with this summer who had just gotten back from Iraq and was in the midst of a divorce because his wife had gotten pregnant by his best friend while he was gone. The saddest part was that he was at least partly responsible. When he was home on R&R, he said he could tell that his friend was interested in his wife (she was a stripper before they married), so he decided to "set them up" by telling his friend that he had made arrangements to meet up with some chick in Baltimore before he flew back to Iraq, but not to say anything to his wife about it. Sure enough, his friend told his wife about it and used that to pursue her. When he came home six months later, his wife was 3 months pregnant. So now he's getting divorced, for the second time.....his roommate just remarried earlier this month--it's his third marriage. They're both 23 years old.

About the attempted suicide, I don't know for sure. This was related to me by someone I work with who's husband is in Iraq right now.....supposedly this was another soldier in his unit. I wasn't thinking about the suicide/insurance thing when I wrote this.....I was too pissed off to think that clearly.
Reply #10 Top
It is a common illness in every military town.It is not very contagious once you are fully aware of it.


I guess this is the first post where I've really seen it, but the others were training posts, and on reflection I can remember some incidents there as well. Like the soldier who lived a few blocks away in Monterey, whose wife was "accidentally" electrocuted in the bathtub while he was out at the video store. They figured out pretty quickly that it wasn't an accident. I believe the motive being used in the case was that she had an affair, but I don't remember for sure.

I agree that it's not that contagious once you're aware of it, but sometimes we can be naive or just plain stupid.

I have a story too, Wahine, though probably less funny, since I was so stupid. Right after my hubby went to boot camp, I ended up working at the Waffle House he'd been working at because his boss asked me to. One night I worked graveyard shift and the boss needed a way to get home(it was 11pm, he'd been there since 5am and had to be back at 5am next morning, his fiance had the car and didn't get off work until 1 am). I asked him if he could drive a standard and I let him take my car home, since he would be back before I could leave anyway. The District Manager didn't like this guy and had been trying to find an excuse to fire him. The DM drove by my boss' house at 3 am and saw my car in the driveway. Even though I was on the clock at work and witnesses could prove that I was, the DM used that as an excuse to fire my boss, claiming he had been having affairs with me and several other employees. I quit and helped him file a wrongful termination lawsuit. Where I was stupid, though, came in not telling my hubby about it, or anything, for awhile. I was at a loss to explain things--how could I expect him to be able to get through basic if I told him that less than two weeks after he left I was accused of having an affair? I didn't want to just not tell him, but I couldn't come up with the "right way" to do it, so I didn't send him anything for a couple of weeks. Up until then I had been writing every day and mailing at least every 2 to 3 days. I still wrote, but I didn't mail anything for about 2 weeks. I finally sent them when I heard guys in the background yelling for me to write to him when we talked one Sunday. I felt so guilty that in trying not to hurt him I had just made things worse.


I'm glad that's behind me, and I hope that by writing about all of this I can get it out of my system and get past it.
Reply #11 Top
Maybe they marry just so they can share the family benefits.....


In a lot of cases yes. Some go to pretty outrageous lenghts to keep them, too. I know of one lady whose husband left her for another man. Since he is still in the military, she basically blackmailed him, saying that if he waited until she had some health issues taken care of before he filed for divorce, she wouldn't out him to the Army. Pretty low, but so was what he did....

It's just sad, thats all.

it is, it really is
Reply #12 Top

It's not just an Army thing...the AF has it's fair share of whores.  I personally have dealt with predators...assholes who are supposed to be my husband's 'friend' but who think nothing of coming on to me as soon as Dave's gone.  That works both ways though...I know a few active duty girls who set their sights on the married guys once they're deployed and their wives are temporarily out of the picture.  There was one at our last base.....she had the nerve to come on to Dave right before he left for Greenland. She and I had a little 'chat' shortly thereafter, and I had a little 'chat' with the squadron commander right after that.

Good article!

Reply #13 Top
She and I had a little 'chat' shortly thereafter, and I had a little 'chat' with the squadron commander right after that.


Bravo, dharmagrl, good for you!
Reply #14 Top

Maybe they marry just so they can share the family benefits

Yep, there's a lot of that going on too.  The free medical, the free dental, the free housing...it's a very attractive package.  You get a man who, depending on the branch of service and his career field, might be gone for more than half the year, every year, leaving you alone....and also leaving you with a lot of time on your hands.

I know that being a military wife isn't the easiest job in the world (boy do we all ever know that, right ladies?). We're left behind to man the forts at home, and it's easy to get lonely and starved of attention and affection.......but don't these women have any self-respect at all? 

Reply #15 Top
Wow, if only all those whorish military wives would listen AND do something about the kind of behavior you're talking about, then maybe the number of STDs, infidelity, & heartaches would dramatically drop where I'm at. One of the places you mentioned is Korea, just where I happen to be at. I can't even begin to tell you about the all the crazy shit I've heard about, let alone seen. It's just unbelievable what kind stuff happens here. It's because of behavior like that that makes me stay the hell away from military women. Some of the stereotypes that the female GIs here complain about have been confirmed over and over again by insightful women like yourself.

By the way, how old are (if you don't mind me asking)? Because I have the odd feeling that you have got to be around your 30s. It's just very HIGHLY UNLIKELY that a woman in the military could be as intuitive as you unless they were older thus more mature. Anyways, kickass article on a shady yet ever prevalent topic amongst the military community.
Reply #16 Top
LadyCleve: Did you notice that this is a featured article? Way to go!
Reply #17 Top
Thank you all for reading and for your amazing comments.

Texas Wahine: Yes, I noticed, and I almost fell off my chair in shock. I kept shouting for SPC Nobody Special to come see. He hadn't even read it yet at that point.

mrt949: My husband was in Korea the year before last, and I've heard alot of stories from there as well. I didn't see anything, but I heard. I agree with you about the stereotypes of the female GIs, but I was really talking more about Army Wives (women married to soldiers, not soldiers themselves) than female soldiers. I am an Army Wife, and I have a few years left to go before I turn 30. Thank you for your compliments.