Change Of Station Experience

We were told to get in rows and stand at the positon of attention, this was frightening. We were told to run to the bus from here, this is where I was split up with everyone I came with. The base was three hours away from the airport. On the bus ride over there I called and texted everyone I knew for three hours. I called Jed first, he could not talk long because he had a meeting, although I knew if I called my mom or Ayden they would both cry and that would make things harder on me. After I talked to Jed and he convinced me everything was ok after 20 minutes of me crying to him as if he could come pick me up and take me home. After this I texted Boone to be sure he made it on a shuttle, he did. Boone was on the Shuttle behind me. That was the last time I talked to him until the day after graduation. We made it to the reception building at nearly 11 o’clock and briefed until about one. We finally got to bed at 2, and we were woken up at 4:30 the following morning. During reception they checked our dental, blood type, eye sight, etc. this is where we received our uniforms, and most importantly where we met our first Drill Sergeants. In receptions Drill Sergeants are almost done with their contracts, they cannot make you preform corrective action, or give you RBIs, all they can do is get really close to you and scream as loud as they could. I was here for seven days, and then after those seven days were

The need to be able to adapt is necessary for every military child since conditions will not always be perfect. Sometimes orders are cut short and a family may have to move before they expected. Two of the most influential years in shaping my background were the two years I spent living in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba where adaptability was of the utmost importance. For example, since everything was shipped to the base on on a barge and sometimes the barge was delayed, the local store would often be out of many products. If one needed something that was out of stock, he or she was simply out of luck and had to make due with what there was. Furthermore, the small student population made for small class sizes sizes and limited resources but despite this we attended school everyday and made the most of what we had. Despite of all these challenges, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and was adaptable in order to adjust to all the changes from the United

At first, my reaction was somewhat neutral, not even panic or shivering. I didn?t know how to feel. I didn?t immediately realize the effects that this major change would have on me. I mean that I cannot believe right away, this happens too fast. I didn?t know how it would feel to live in a completely different country and new house. I didn?t instantly acknowledge the effect that leaving my friends would have on me. I didn?t anticipate the constant emotional frustration of being forced to leave my closest friends. I didn?t know how it would feel to be the new kid in school. I did not even know how to speak and write English at that time. I cannot image that I have to restart everything in my life. And I was too scared to think about the difficulty to fit with all the new things around.

At times the language and environment was harsh but I came to the conclusion that I needed to take a step back and allow someone to help me progress myself as an adult. For me, graduating basic training was one of the proudest moments of my life and whenever I look back at that day, I know that if I hadn’t of been put through that stress, I wouldn’t have the skills I do today to deal with that. The military was a great thing for me to experience, and I will always be thankful for

eing deployed to the Republic of Georgia was an experience I may never come across again in my military career. Going to a country who is considered a second world country and located so close to the Russian border gave me a false impression of the country prior to even educating myself about it. Before even departing Fort Knox I quickly had to adapt not only to my surroundings but my peers as well. I was made platoon leader which I had to be in charge of 30 cadets some with even prior service backgrounds and phenomenal APFT scores. At first there were some bumps in the road but after a few days of getting to know each other and having a pretty good platoon sergeant things started to come together. This is a similar comparison to what it may feel like for a new platoon leader just arriving to

Over the past seven years my family and I have moved to many different countries and we have never stayed in one place for very long. In the year 2009 my family moved to Costa Rica, in 2010 we moved to Guatemala, then in 2011 we moved back to the US, then in 2012 we moved to England, and finally in 2015 I moved by myself back to the US. I really struggled with the moving to different countries so often, the biggest struggle I had was I never felt like I had a permanent home. It also felt like every time I finally put down roots, they just got ripped up again. On the other hand, one of my best friends, who also moved to many different countries all over the world, never struggled with it and loved the adventurous aspect of moving. For the longest

Closer to the day that I was going to leave NAS Willow Grove I called my folks and told them when I was going to go home. My family was very happy that at last I was going to be with them, and Dad told me he was going to drive from West New York to the base, and pick me up to take me home. I was looking forward to seeing my parents once again. I had a lot of things I wanted to tell them, so many stories of my adventures of the past months. I was also looking forward to getting home and seeing what college I could go to now that I felt more confident about myself.

We arrived on a day where the sky was pale, and the people’s faces seemed very weary. I convinced myself that everything will be fine by repeating some positive thoughts in my head. The conflict in Iraq was pretty aroused most of the time, and even though my parents and I were Iraqis, people there still looked at us as foreigners, because we did not live in Iraq long enough. However, it was very hard to set an appointment for the passport process, so we waited about six days for it. It was not a pleasant waiting because there was no electricity, for we had to deal with the 120 Fahrenheit weather. My parents knew how difficult it was for me to stay there, even for a short period of time, but no solution they had. I have big dreams to achieve, I also have a big love for my family, and I was not ready to suffer if something would happen to them because of an explosion or a

instead all I wanted to do was go home. I had no family there, I was stressed to the max,

From my personal experience while deployed to Afghanistan from 2011-2012 I can say it is very rough to put it simply, the thought of leaving your post and wanting to get away from it all is a regular occurrence, but when you are in that tower or driving on a convoy or whatever it is that you are doing and you look out into the nothingness it hits you very quickly and you realize the radical impracticality of it all, you understand through your training that there is literally no way that you would be able to accomplish getting away from whatever you wish you could.

I realized still a bit surprise and a tad offended, but I thought, I’m not living here in Korea anyways so why worry? And then, in the end of August my parents told me we were moving to Korea on the 30th of August. I had finally adjusted myself, and gotten everything back in place after my injury, and now I was moving. Like a house

Regretfully we left Alcove Springs and go to Fort Kearney. The break was well needed even if it was only for two days. We are already four days into the eleven day trip. I would be happier if we were at least halfway, but that's not how it works. My feeling of happiness disappeared over the first two days of traveling, now I'm as miserable and as negative as ever. I can tell the others share these feelings as we move onward. I have blisters that are bare and raw, and my kids have sore feet and ache of walking. To make matters better, or worse, in my husband’s eyes, we needed stop for a while to fix the tongue of our wagon. It just snapped almost in half when we were trying to move over a particularly steep hill. It was hanging on by a thread

My father has been in the military for the past 30 years, this means that my family and I are used to moving. Usually the moving process goes very fast: my dad will receive a posting message and within the next four months we’ll be in a new home. It can be intense, as my house would be up for sale, my parents would leave to go buy a new house, and I’d have to break the news to my friends that I’d be gone within a few months, but I’ve always enjoyed moving despite the intensity and the stress it might bring. Due to the fact that the longest I’ve lived in one place was for four years, I began to expect a new posting after just a few years in a new place. While it goes fast and can be stressful, I appreciate the moving process because it’s interesting to see my life packed up and moved somewhere, whether it’s across the ocean or across Canada.

Living far from home, even for a short period of time, can be really hard at the beginning. We have to remember that all changes are difficult, but they are

Just think that it requires a little more organization, that it can be a little tiring and that it may be worth staying in one place and gravitating around. Especially if you leave less than ten days .