First off, my DH is Air National Guard. I have found that many people don't understand what that means. They think you are in the military or you aren't. They don't understand that we don't get Tricare unless dh has 30+ days of AD in a row, we don't have the nice base that AD does (no BX, comminsary, and such) we don't have ANY benefits. Ok, we do NOW have dental, but besides his life insurance they give him, that is it. So what does he do? What does he get? He is a C-130 pilot and he flies as much as they let him (there is a set limit on how much per quarter/per year he can fly), and he does his weekend drill every month. The rest, he has to try to get orders to work. Yes, there are full time jobs out there (aka technician jobs), but they are very competitive to get. We don't have a steady income. He might work 5 days a week one month and then 5 days total the next. What he gets is the honor of doing something for his country that he LOVES to do, flying.

No, we don't move every couple years; we are here to stay. No, he doesn't get deployed for long, normal is 1 day to 6 weeks, although he has been gone longer. Sure, we live closer to family and get to make and keep friends. But people assume that if you live close to family that they will take care of you. When we were AD during his pilot training, I found out that other military spouses really do try to look after their own, knowing that some don't have friends and family around to help.