Sooooo, let me tell you about life in the Air Force.
DH has been active duty for 17 years now. I came on board at his 10 year mark. We're thinkin 9-10 more years. The first base I was at, we were there almost 6 years. Right now we're 18 months into a 3 year assignment at base two.
What's it like?
Generally speaking it's like a regular job. His shift starts around 7:00 am and he gets home around 6:00 at night. (He is a workaholic though...that's why the longer hours.) In his field there are people on the job 24 hours a day though.
Do you have any say in where you go?
Usually. He's picked most of his assignments. As far as
you having any say...I'll just say I was
informed we were moving...
Are your husband's gone a lot?
Until we moved here the longest he was gone was 3 weeks. Up here he was gone 7 weeks last winter and right now he's on a 5 month deployment. That said, it's only his second or third deployment in 17 years and the last one was over 11 years ago! I don't know of any Air Force member (personally) who has been gone over 7 months.
Is it stressful?
My greatest stress is over little stuff. Will we be able to take our vacation when we want. Will we be able to find a babysitter for such and such squadron thing. Etc.
Do they really "take care" of the family?
Physically yes. Housing is provided. I do pay for my health care by choice becuase I think the care is superior and I don't have to jump through all the hoops Nikki talked about...
In my experience the emotional side has left much to be desired. Depends on his squadron and how it's structured. I made a bigger effort at this base to get involved very quickly and it's paid off. Within 9 months of arriving I actually was too involved...
Overall...
Overall I really love the lifestyle. You get the chance to see and experience some things/places that most people don't. You get to meet people from all walks of life and glimpse into life in different regions/countries. It has it's headaches, but frankly, so does any other job. And at the end of the day, you can say you were a part of something bigger than yourself.
And, Lynnette, yes the drawdown has stopped. They have decided to keep the Air Force at it's current level, so they should be back to accepting people now. 2005/2006 were really tough years...especially for company grade officers.