Advice for a new military spouse

I originally thought of this blog post at my brother-in-law’s wedding in 2016. He’s also in the Army, and his wife was brand new to the military life. As a third-generation military dependent and an Army wife, I think I’m a pretty good source for advice for a new military spouse. The military life does come with a learning curve, but you’ll find that you can adjust pretty quickly.

Learn the lingo

Did you know that you can attend orientation for new military spouses? It’s a great crash course in everything military life, including the seemingly endless and baffling alphabet soup. You can learn about the duty station where you live, the resources available to you, and general information about the military. For the Army, the MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) Office normally coordinates this at each post.

Familiarize yourself with your installation

Take the time to drive around your post or base and learn where things are. To start, I would recommend knowing where to find your spouse’s unit, the DEERS office, the hospital (especially if you are using Tricare), the commissary, and the exchange. Depending on what you do and your living situation, you will probably become pretty familiar with the main part of the post or base.

Get involved

Amanda suggested getting involved. I wrote a post sharing my tips on how to get involved as a new military spouse. I think it’s important that military spouses make connections wherever they live. The military life may feel isolating and lonely, and getting involved will help reduce those feelings. This can also help you learn more about where you live.

Make a bucket list for each duty station

Thanks to Mika for this suggestion on Instagram! A side effect of military life is that you live at each duty station for a finite amount of time. I really believe that you should make the most of your time at your different homes as much as possible, and it’s something that I wish we’d been better at. When we lived in Colorado, I shared my bucket list shortly after we moved there. I realized while writing this post that I never published what I put together for Georgia. Stay tuned for that!

Start a master list of addresses

Plan to move every few years. We’ve moved five times in the past eight years. After a while, the house numbers, zip codes, and street names become fuzzy and start to blend together. Create a list that tracks your addresses (to include county and neighborhood / development name) with the dates you lived there. It’ll help ten years down the road when you need to provide previous addresses.

What advice would you add for a new military spouse?