Is there a greater sacrifice...or does it ALL count....

Ok...gonna ramble a bit here....bear with me! :)

I friended a friend of Moms on facebook about a year or so ago. Mom worked with this gal..I really don't know her...but we 'seemed' to have a lot in common...both about the same age...both with younger kids..and her husband was about to be deployed for his first 'real' time. He's national guard...which means that for one weekend a month..and two weeks in the summer he 'played' war. And. Got. Paid. For. It. ONE weekend a month. TWO weeks in the whole summer. And. He. Gets. Paid. Don't get me started on that.....anywho...so I was being all supportive of her..and sent her a huge packet of materials dealing with deployment. Some of it was the 'reality' stuff..pay issues...where to go for answers etc...and some of it was the 'emotional' stuff...cycle of deployment...stuff for her two girls to have to deal with a parent being deployed. All the good stuff that as an Official Navy Ombudsman I can get my hands on and hand out to families...even if they aren't Navy! Good stuff....
Good enough....he goes over to the sandbox (as we military folks affectionately call 'over there') and he gets shipped back after two months. Why you might ask? Because he couldn't FREAKING HANDLE IT. He gets paid for YEARS and YEARS to 'play' war...a PAY CHECK people. Then when he gets called upon to actually DO what he's been paid for for years, he can't 'handle it'. Not only that, he ends up not going HOME and becoming a productive member of society once again...nooooo..he lands in a VA hospital in Texas with PTSD. He's STILL THERE. Eight months later! Who's paying for this you might ask? WE ARE. Tax payers! His wife posted that 'yay, he might be coming home soon'. YAY indeed. Wanna talk sister? MY husband is retiring after twenty YEARS of standing up and doing what he's been paid for. While your husband was doing his 'real' job and PLAYING at war (meaning pulling in REAL money while ALSO getting a pay check from the Gov't for his 'hoo rah he man warrior weekends'), MY husband was pulling in shitty money, sacrificing holiday after holiday with his family...spending MONTHS without contact with the outside world and his family...and guess what? No PTSD..no hospital...nope...nadda...
But what REALLY pisses me off????? what this post is REALLY about? She just posted this morning that she got a new fancy coffee maker AND got a military discount!!! WHY??? She gets a 'military discount' because WHY???? Because her husband 'pretended' to be a hero?? I say she should get a pretend military discount and let us REAL Military wives reap the benefits!

Ok..I gotta get off my soap box now before I get all Holier than thou...after all, this IS the first day of lent...and I HAVE given up alcohol for it. Maybe all I really need to do is stop reading posts like HERS and I won't WANT to drink! :)

Hugs to all!!
Jaye