Burke and I live near the largest navy base in the world, Naval Station Norfolk. It makes for an interesting dynamic in this town. Last weekend the base hosted "Fleet Fest," a festival on base with ship tours and a car show and live entertainment. We caught the tail end of it and were able to tour the USS Eisenhower, a big aircraft carrier.
Those things are seriously massive.
This is me on the elevator. They move the airplanes out onto the elevator and then it takes them up to the top deck.
It was pretty neat for Burke and I to be able to just drive on base for the festival. It's usually a little more complicated than that. Some friends of ours from church live on base and they invited us over for dinner one time. We pulled up at the gate, Burke handed them his ID, and we had to pull around and wait for our friends to drive up to the gate and escort us to their house. I visit teach this same lady, and it's a bit of a challenge because if I were to go by myself it would be terribly inconvenient for her to load up her 3 kids and come to the gate to get me.
When Burke was gone to Wisconsin for a whole week and I was utterly lonely, I could most certainly not complain to anyone. More than half of the people at church are navy families, and they say goodbye to their husbands/fathers for deployments that are usually no less than 6 months. Besides that they often have other things that take them away for a week or 2 at a time. It's a different world, that's for sure. Recently some ladies at church were talking about when they gave birth while their husbands were deployed. One lady said, "You're not a navy wife until you give birth without your husband there!"
It's super enlightening to see what these servicemen and women and their families go through. It has really helped me appreciate more the sacrifices of those in the military. It's a whole different lifestyle, and it's not easy.
Every once in a while Burke talks about joining the navy. My new response is, "Don't do it! I don't want to have a baby without you!"
Thanks to you all for the sacrifices you make.
My brother is in the air force and currently deployed too. It is his first long term one...so it has been rough on his wife and three kids. I don't think I was made for that life...tough for sure. Don't do it is what I would tell Ernesto if he thought about it. So cool that you got to tour one...sounds fascinating. I only know so much from movies...which is not a lot.
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