New 2 The Life
We’re the newbies. The spouses who look lost at the first deployment meeting, who don’t know all the acronyms yet, who’ve never packed a dish pack (or maybe only a few times.) Join us in talking about this crazy, transitory way of military life.
Surprise - You're SuperWoman Now
NEW 2 THE LIFE STORY- CHLOE KARMARCK
by Kari Hoefer Johnson
Some say our military is made up of super heroes. Maybe. But superhero spouses don’t get super powers automatically in the comic books and military spouses need those powers from the moment they say ‘I do’.
When Chloe Kamarck joined the ranks of the military spouse hero elite this year, there were a few things she wished she had known before she slipped on her engagement ring.
For instance, she wished she had known that as a military spouse she could not escape MP radar, even if she had been driving an invisible car - or that and a wink and a smile weren’t enough to get her out of a traffic ticket on post. And Kamarck figured her superhero identification card, otherwise known as her dependent military ID, would get her in anywhere she needed to go on post. She was right - but only when she remembered to bring it.
“I forgot my military ID at least five times before I learned to never go anywhere without it,” Kamarck said. Sadly, that means she abandoned at least five shopping carts full of superhero fuel in the Commissary.
Although Kamarck’s MP-radar-detecting-powers have yet to develop, her power to see into the future came in mighty handy when planning for her cousin’s beach wedding in Mexico. She knew that sharing this information with her husband’s commanding officer was important. So, before the wedding invitations had even been mailed, she had a down-to-the-minute copy of the week’s itinerary approved by her husband’s commander.
Even with all her new-found skills, Karmarck’s friends and family still have a hard time believing that sometimes superhero spouses have to work alone.
“With two wars going on, you will still have to explain to [civilians] that no, you cannot accompany your husband when he's deployed,” she said.
Unfortunately, there are no super powers to help a new spouse understand the Tricare system and only time and practice will help her remember that silver oak leaves outrank gold ones.
“Good luck remembering that at your first formal military function,” Karmarck said.
In the civilian world, talking about salaries is either quiet banter among colleagues or strictly verboten. Military pay scales, however, are not only published but freely discussed, especially around the first of the year when raises are announced. Of this Kamarck said, “It's both liberating and a little embarrassing when you know exactly how much everyone else is making and they know exactly how much you are making.”
Overall, the best advice Kamarck can give her fellow new superhero spouses is to always expect the unexpected: “No matter what rumors you've heard regarding deployment schedules, future postings, etc, the needs of the military always come first,” she said.
In other words, just like in the comic books, military superheroes are always busy - always flying off to go rescue someone, somewhere.
