One-Way Communication

The other day, I wrote about the silver linings to deployment.  On the flip side, I've already come up with what I think is perhaps the worst thing about deployment: one-way communication.

When something really, really good or really, really bad happens, I hate that I can't get in touch with my husband to let him know.  And of course those things always seem to happen when there's a lull in our communication.  Several years ago, my grandmother passed away while my husband was at NTC.  I had no way of contacting him and telling him that I needed him.  I didn't hear from him until three days later, which meant that I had to deal with all of my emotions on my own, far from family since I was in Germany.  It was torture not to be able to reach him at such a sad time.

Right now I am dealing with the same feeling, though on the opposite side of the coin.  I have something really amazing and exciting to tell him, but I just have to keep waiting until he calls me.

I hate that I can't pick up a phone and share big life events with him.

Comments

[wifeunit]

I hope he gets the chance to call real soon!

When my water broke I made the call and found out that doesn't fall into messages the Red Cross delivers. But I really didn't want to have my husband read an email the day after. He was not likely to trek to the mwr until afternoon/evening and since it was his morning I wasn't going to get in touch with him. I knew the other sailor on his team was an early morning type person but didn't know his email address. Yet somehow amongst the goings on I remembered he was on my husband's myspace list, and since my phone gets online I sent him a message. I don't know how long it really was but he must have been online right then because it felt like less than a half an hour before I was talking to my husband. And he called throughout the night. He heard him get his first bath and heard them call out his height and weight.

I got to thank his teammate in person when they came home.

Not being able to share what you want when you want was a hard thing to adjust to. Add to that the worry of what the lack of communication means was a pretty big stressor for me.

[Ramie]

It always seems that there's a lull in communication from over there when something's happening here too. Good, bad or ugly....seems to work out that way every time.
Here's hoping he can call SOON.

[wendy's tiki hut]

Sing it sister!

I know I should be extremely grateful for all the amazing communication. And it is amazing to know that I can sent instant messages and listen to his voice. But it sure stinks to wait (and wait and wait) for the phone to ring.

I hope he calls tonight!

[Ann M.]

I'm not allowed to send news that they consider too good, too bad, or would otherwise be too distracting to my husband when he's gone. And there's something like four people that read all the messages before it gets to him so unless we write in code, it is NOT getting through. So I know how you feel. We write everything down in notebooks that we exchange when he comes home. It isn't quite the same but he does get a glimpse of the emotions I felt over something he missed.

Just focus on how great you're going to feel when you finally get to break the news.