The Army

What a funny organ-iztion. In addition to all the "work" the guys do, there's also a lot of support programs going on. You can rent skis, mountain bikes, and scuba gear at the Army base. Group trips are planned to neat places in Europe. There are Bunco nights, and frequent Pampered Chef parties. There is a great women's Bible study community, and organized 5k and 10k runs. 

One of the extra-curriculars I attend is called Coffee Night, and it is for the officer's and senior NCO's wives. Uh-oh. I have to translate that. A senior NCO is a regular soldier that got promoted a lot, so he's a leader of a lot of soldiers. Anyway, the Coffee Night is intended to keep us informed, connected, and help us make friends. I was even given a pin at my first one! The little pin is the same emblem as the patch that Matt wears on his uniform. It has a fleur de lis, and it says "toujours pret." The first time I saw this, I was more than a little surprised that the US Army would have French themes and mottos on the sleeves of all its soldiers. Apparently, that is the tiny tip of the iceberg when it comes to why the Army does things the way it does. The iceberg's name is Tradition.

Back to Coffee Night, this past Tuesday. It's good that we wives have the common ground of living in Germany, because otherwise there would be not a common square inch between some of us. (The fact that your husbands work for the same enormous branch of the government is not a huge tie.) There are ladies originating from the South, the Northwest, Africa, and Germany. One wife has been with the Army 18 years, another got married in February. You might think this would be a great opportunity to learn something new, and except for the weird people, it is. At this month's Coffee, we all were taught American Sign Language by a wife in our unit who is deaf! She had us select sign names for ourselves, by signing our first initial linked to another sign that represents us. Mine was "A" followed by "flower". Others were "M"+ "sing", "T" + "horse", and "N" + "curly hair". I thought it was completely fascinating. It is a lot easier to remember a hand movement than a new word.  The best part is that now, we won't feel awkward about whether or not to attempt to chat with the deaf wife at Army functions.

Speaking of Army functions, we are just now getting ready to go to the monthly "Hail and Farewell" for our unit. It is a dinner at a restaurant somewhere within 15 miles of the base, with all the officers, senior NCOs, and their wives in attendance. The commander of our unit addresses everyone and then introduces the people newly assigned to our unit and gives the folks who are going to a different unit a chance to say goodbye. Everyone gets a token for these milestones... a glass beerstein, a huge plaque, even an inscribed platter if you got married, like we did. And they all say toujours pret on them, of course.