Quit Your Whining! (TV News Rant)

The BBQ Pit
1

OK, maybe I shouldn’t watch the news and read the SDMB at the same time. This story’s really annoying me, though.

It’s rather tragic, actually. A local family’s home was destroyed in a fire shortly after Christmas. The husband in the National Guard and was stationed in Belgium at the time. They granted him emergency leave so he could come home and help his family, but his leave’s up now and the family’s still living in a motel. The news story is talking about how unfair this is, complete with footage of his cute daughter asking her daddy’s boss to let him stay and his wife talking about how difficult it is. What they’re saying comes across as whiny.

Look, I’m not unsympathetic. We’ve had a few fires recently, including apartments which were destroyed by a gas explosion, and the temperature this morning is 4 degrees Farenheit, or about -15 Celsius. I was evacuated from the path of a hurricane once, and that was bad enough. Leaving your home knowing everything you have is likely to be destroyed must be much, much worse.

Still, lady, your husband’s in the military! Yes, it’s only the National Guard, but it’s still the military. We’re also gearing up for war which means National Guard units are being called up. It’s not a nice, safe job. We found that out around here when several members of a local National Guard unit were killed during Operation Desert Storm. Your husband has obligations. If you two don’t like that, right now, you’re stuck. Do you think you’re the only military wife who hasn’t faced this? Would you like it better if your husband had been home, but had been killed in the fire? I understand your anger and frustration, but don’t go on television whining about it and looking for sympathy, because you won’t find it here! Oh, and your daughter’s comments aren’t coming across as cute and adorable; they’re coming across as whiny and selfish. “Please send my daddy home!” is something I’d be willing to bet most kids have thought while daddy was stationed overseas, and I’m sure most daddies would prefer to be home.

I’m not in the military – I was turned down by the Air Force – but when I applied, I was aware that it would require sacrifices and I was prepared to make them. I also have tremendous respect for those who do and those who have. Damn. As I said, I’ve got the news on, and they just mentioned a Korean War vet who was found frozen to death in a shack in Minnesota. I’m sorry the family lost their home, but the father has a job to do, one he volunteered to do. Why are they whining on television about him doing it?

If I’m being an unsympathetic bitch, feel free to tell me, but after this weather forecast, I’m switching the blasted box off rather than listen to this again!

CJ

2

Whining in private is one thing, whining on TV is another. I feel for them, I really do – my best friend’s husband just got sent to somewhere in the Middle East (we think, anyway) and they have a four-month-old daughter. The last thing either of them wants is for him to be over there, especially right now. However, he’s in the Army, and that’s just the way it is.

Maybe they think the National Guard somehow doesn’t count? Because the whole point of it is that if there’s a war, it DOES.

3

I recall, back in 1991, a couple of members of a local National Guard unit making a stink in the media about going to Saudi Arabia when their unit was called up. I was singularly unimpressed with their argument, which, as best I can recall, revolved around the central point that “they just joined to make some extra money; they didn’t want to fight in a war.”

4

Wife of an Air National Guardsman checking in.

Yeah, I can understand the desire of the family in wanting the Guardsman home while the family is having a problem.

However, military spouses need to be a tougher breed than the average. Deployments happen, training happens, and they don’t often come at convenient times. Even when there’re no deployments or training to think about, the needs of the unit come first. It sucks when Airman has to miss holidays and birthdays and significant occasions, but he signed up for this. He’s doing it on purpose. That means I have to step up and take care of things in his absence. Bills aren’t going to be paid when he’s gone unless I pay them. If something breaks, I have to make arrangements so it can be fixed. Housecleaning can’t wait. If Aaron wakes up in the middle of the night, it’s up to me to take care of him.

That said, I think the news story as you described it is incredibly irresponsible. The families of deployed troops have it rough as it is, but when a news outlet blames the soldier’s/sailor’s/airman’s command for upholding its regulations, it doesn’t help. Self-serving whining really doesn’t help.

I can also lay odds that the soldier’s command isn’t too happy with the news coverage, and the soldier will hear about it.

Robin

5

Ivylad left for a six-month Med run two days after our daughter was born.

Due to sea trials, he missed her birth.

Being a military spouse is a bitch.