No hard feelings here either. I just think you have to look at the positive and the negative. And on top of that, you have to be able to take the negative with a positive attitude. I didn't want people to think I was making stuff up. It is hard for vets to find jobs, even with degrees. The military doesn't pay for everything that people think it pays for. A spouse who has to go without a job and benefits for 10-20 years may find it difficult or impossible to get back into the work force. (And it's harder, I think for young O spouses, who definitely move more often than E spouses.) There are a lot of awesome things about the military, but you've really got to be able to get up with a smile on your face (especially as a spouse, so the military member can do his or her job without worrying about back home) in spite of it all. Ultimately, I think the mom's worry is real and justified and I don't just mean about the possibility of dying. This is a life choice, not a career choice, and it affects spouses, which we don't know if he has, (who choose to marry the military member) and often kids (who are pretty much drafted into the lifestyle.) We loved our time as a military family, but we would only tell another family to do it if they could really take the very, very real hardships that come with it and sometimes after it.
Here's a great, positive thing: Now that my DH is retired, I can still go up on base and use lots of the conveniences like the clinic, the commissary, the BX, etc. And it's SO awesome to run into other military spouses you knew ten or fifteen years ago at another base on the other side of the world. :hugs: And there's the time last year when we were at a Fourth of July picnic and the magician performing up on stage looked out into the audience of hundreds of people and saw my husband and our family and said, "Hey, there's some folks out there I know from a long time ago! How are you guys doing?" I should probably scrap that story!
The young man who won the ROTC scholarship is joining a family, a very big, sometimes cantankerous family. 
