Many Waters

Wife of a Sailor with her Huzzy

I'm still having a great time in MA.  I have another guest post for you today, this time from Wife of a Sailor.  If you've never participated in the Milspouse (First) Friday Fill-In, you should check it out.  You can read the questions and answers from last Friday.  It's a great way to get to know other bloggers.  She's another blogger that I've been able to meet in person.  I love that I've met so many great people through bogging!  Anyway, she's going to talk about the uncertainity of life with a submariner.


The military life is such an unknown. Sometimes the submarine life is even more so, I think.

Right now, we are in the middle of our last deployment (which is called a patrol due to the type of sub
Huzzy is on) and about to head into shore duty. It’s pretty much our first one. I say pretty much because
I met Huzzy on his last “shore” duty, which was recruiting. Let me tell ya, that’s no picnic and there’s a
reason they give recruiters an extra $400 a month of “hardship duty” pay.

So Huzzy will be nearly 13 ½ years in and going on only his second shore duty—and the first “real” one—
in May. I’m really excited, but also a bit hesitant. You never know what the next change is going to bring.
Huzzy was so excited to get off recruiting duty and go back to the subs. He chose an SSGN and when he
got there, it wasn’t exactly what he was expecting. So when they were looking for a volunteer to go back
to an SSBN (or “Boomer” as they are known), he jumped at the chance.

Now? He realized the grass isn’t always greener on the other side and really likes the GN platform.
But here we are ready for shore duty. He chose the duty he did because it has the best leadership
opportunities for him. They are way undermanned and apparently work really long hours. And Huzzy
has heard one of the divisions in need of someone is the “paper pushing” department and he and I both
know he’d absolutely hate it.

So I’m cautious to see if this shore duty is really all it’s cracked up to be. I hope it’s at least some sort
of break for him and that he’ll have the chance to really bang out his college education and get his
Associate’s and a good chunk of his Bachelor’s degree done.

As for some of the unknowns of being a sub wife? Well, I knew the target return date when Huzzy left
for his patrol. But until we are within 24 hours of the actual timeframe, we don’t know and aren’t really
told. We could meet our ombudsman in person and ask if it changed, but they don’t know for sure,
either, until they get the call.

Another unknown is email. We never know if our emails are getting to the boat and never know when
an email is going to be sent to us. When the boat is doing what it’s meant to do… there’s no email
coming off it. They can usually receive email because it’s a different system that doesn’t require them
to do transmissions. But we’ve had email show up months and even a patrol later! It’s definitely not a
reliable system in any stretch of the word. And of course, we don’t hear their voice until they return. No
cell phone towers 20,000 leagues under the sea!

The unknowns of military life really can get to a person. But the Navy is slowly beating the Type A
personality out of me. I don’t think I’ll ever completely be removed of my Type A, but maybe I’ll become
a Type AB!