Like a "Retired" Jersey

My husband went into the field last week, and he was instructed to bring an old set of BDUs or DCUs to wear for some part of the training.

Uh oh.  Remember this?

We don't have extra BDUs and DCUs anymore.  Crap.

I did keep one full pair of each, hung lovingly in the back of the closet.  I kept a nice, pressed BDU from when my husband was in Finance and the most beat-up, worn-out pair of DCUs from Iraq.  My husband suggested that he just take the one from Iraq, rip all the patches off, and take it into the field.

A panic gripped me.  I don't know where it came from, but I absolutely did not want to give up those uniforms.

It's silly, because it's not like he was throwing them away.  He was just going to start wearing them again.  But I could barely stop myself from crying as I tried to explain why I just couldn't let him do it.  He didn't get it.  Shoot, I don't even get it.  But it was something about that uniform that took him through 13 months in Iraq and then got "retired" to the back of the closet.  It was one chapter of his life that we had made it through and that I wanted to be able to look back on and hold in my arms, patches and all.  I imagined our kids playing dress up or wearing them for a school play someday.  I didn't want him to muck it all up out on an obstacle course or combatives class.  I wanted it to stay "retired," like a star athlete's jersey.

I also think it had something to do with the fact that he's getting ready to start another deployment chapter soon.  I didn't want him to take this set of DCUs away from me right before he's getting ready to leave again.  They were the symbol of surviving the first round.  They were proof that he had made it to Iraq and back home again once before.  I had imagined hanging a battered ACU in the closet beside them this time next year, another chapter in our life completed.  I needed all my chapters hanging in a row.

We actually had to go to a pawn shop and buy a set of DCUs.  It seemed so absurd to pay for something that we used to have ten pairs of before I cut them up into a quilt.  But I couldn't part with the two pairs I had kept.  I just couldn't.

I had no idea I was that attached to them until my husband needed to take them away.  And that I was way more attached to them than my husband would ever be.  Who would've thought that old DCUs could make me cry?  I thought that the quilt I had made would be the important heirloom, but it seems to have just made me more attached to the two uniforms I didn't cut up.

Do you have any military mementos that you hold dear, that you cherish as the symbol of a chapter of your life?

Comments

[plibarmywife]

The stuff I cherish, is in a box labeled Iraq deployment. And I haven't had the courage to open it since I sealed it before the PCS.

No, you aren't silly. those are more than uniforms, they are symbols for you. I got upset when he ditched the BDU pants.. but the shirts are the BBQ apron I made and sent to him in the Sand. and that's something I'll never let him throw out/donate.

LAW

[Slightly Salty]

You aren't silly and it makes perfect sense wanting to hold onto something that symbolize your survival through that last deployment.

Obi-Wan is now turning his uniforms into man project clothes to wear around the house and I'm okay with that.

[kannie]

You might check into any Army/Navy surplus stores in the area - they tend to have all sorts of beat-up stuff around! Even thrift stores, since it's around a base...

[kannie]

But you probably found the cheapest place, anyway! :-)

[Laura, a Military Mom]

My Sons know how much I collect those important things for the future scrap something. Christmas 2006 when #2 son returned from serving with NATO he gave me a set of his BDU's for my present, it sits in the closet with his Grandfather's WWII jacket and his brother's DCU's from Afghanistan. All from times past...lots of memories :)

[Erin]

Awh, Sarah, I'm glad you got to keep them. I hope he was understanding about it all. I know men sometimes don't get the emotional attachment to things. Mine doesn't have any of his old uniforms from when he was a Marine and that saddens me. Hell, I know my dad has my old girl scout uniform at the house that my mom saved! ;)

[Elisa]

I never thought about it like that before: "They were the symbol of surviving the first round."
It makes perfect sense. I know that when my husband leaves the Army I won't want to get ride of at least one pair of his ACUs. I look fondly at the old BDUs in our closet that he wore during ROTC, which is when we met.

[HH7]

Ooooh LAW, I've seen those BBQ aprons and they are so cute! Our OSC sells them for ways and means but I won't buy one b/c I think I can make my own! Too bad my hubs got rid of his old BDUs and all but one pair of DCU pants. (Don't ask me why he only has one pair of pants left and the rest are gone)

I tried to explain to him last night about the whole keeping the uniform thing and he looked at me like I had a 3rd eye. Guess he's not too sentimental about those kinds of things.