For some reason being married to somebody in the military makes people ask all sorts of random questions, questions you just WOULDN'T ask somebody who hasn’t got a connection to the military.
I thought I’d write down some of my favourites...
What’s happening with Russia then?
As we all know, Russia have invaded Ukraine and it’s all over the news. I’m not going to bring up my views on here because we’d be here all night. However this is genuinely something I’ve been asked so many times over the last few days.
That along with questions like “Are we going in?” “Is this the start of WW3?”
The answer to all of these questions is... I DON’T BLOODY KNOW!
I know as much as you do, I watch the news like everybody else and what I see on there is all I know...
It’s not like Kelly get’s told of all military plans ever and then when she comes home we have a good gossip, lol
Are there bunkers in military houses?
I’m not joking, I was genuinely asked this question and it just made me laugh... No military houses do not have bunkers in them.
It would be pretty cool if they did though!
Some of them don’t even have a working oven, let alone a bunker lol
Also if they did come with a bunker/safe room, we wouldn’t be able to get in there because it would probably be filled with ALL of the military issued kit; of which there is about a house worth on it’s own!
Where does Kelly keep her weapon (in the house)
Again this was one of those questions where I thought ‘is this person being serious, or are they taking the mick’ - Let me tell you, they were being deadly serious and genuinely wanted to know.
Well the answer to that is that Kelly doesn't keep any weapons in the house (I can’t believe I’ve just had to type that lol)
Kelly doesn’t often need a weapon lol but when she does, she like every other service member would go the armoury and sign one out.
Can you imaging if every member of the british forces took a weapon home!?
Can Kelly drive a tank?
The answer to this one is that she actually could!
Well I say could... It’s not exactly part of the day job, but as the REME work on all of the Army's equipment, she’s had the opportunity to drive a few armoured vehicles in her time.
I’m hoping one day a tank becomes our family vehicle so that we can take the children to school in one!
Can you deploy with your wife?
I’d excuse anybody asking this questions because they may not know the difference between a deployment and a posting.
A deployment is a commitment where you’re not accompanied by your family and is more than likely for operational reasons.
It’s all work and is usually for a period of 6 months (but will differ)
A posting is an assignment, it’s just normal life and is moving onto the next job. You can move with or without your family.
So the answer to the question is NO I can’t deploy with Kelly lol, but we can be posted together.
As a spouse are you part of the reserves?
NO! Of course not... Although there are so many spouses who are in the reserves and that’s great. I’ve also thought about joining myself and it still might happen ;) so watch this space.
Do you pay for your military house?
This is one question we get asked all the time and the answer is a BIG FAT YES!
It’s definitely not free, it’s just like renting a house on civvi street!
It’s one of the most common myths that military personnel are given houses for free!
We pay all the normal bills too, which can actually be a pain because every time we move house we have to look at our supplier options etc.
Can you not just move to an Army camp closer to home?
I’d love to be able to say yes to this but we have to go where Kelly is sent, just like everybody else in the Army has to go where they’re told to go.
If I wanted to stay closer to home, we could hand the military house back and I could move home but then Kelly would have to work away during the week on her own and we'd only see her on weekends.
A lot of people do actually do this, especially with school aged children if they don’t want to keep moving them.
We're just not ready to be spending the majority of the week apart, so we'll continue to accompany Kelly wherever she is sent.
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That’s all I can think of right now, if you have any other questions, please ask and I’ll gladly answer them!