Four Moves in Four Years: The Nomadic Life of an Army Wife

In just eight days, my husband Bill and I will be moving for the fourth time in as many years. We move a lot because Bill is a full time member of the Army National Guard. The irony of the situation is that I used to complain about not moving. For the first five years of our marriage, Bill had two back to back assignments in the Washington, DC area. During our four year stint living on Fort Belvoir in northern Virginia, I used to gaze enviously at the moving vans that regularly showed up at my neighbors' homes, taking them to different duty stations all over the world. I dreamt of moving to exotic places like Germany, Hawaii, or maybe somewhere on the west coast, like Washington or California.

As I pull pictures off the wall and note the dust and cobwebs in the huge rented house I need to clean thoroughly, I realize that one should always be careful what one wishes for. I'm finally getting a real taste of what it's like to move all the time and I have to admit, I don't like it. Having grown up the daughter of an Air Force officer, I really should have already been broken into this process, but my father retired when I was about six years old. Unlike my three older sisters, I didn't get the globetrotting experience most military brats experience. For the past four years, I've been making up for that lack of moving experience as an Army wife.

Move #1- Fort Belvoir, Virginia to Fort Belvoir, Virginia- January 2007- September 2007

Our string of moves began in January 2007. For just over three years prior, we had been living in a neat white house on Fort Belvoir. We loved that little house, even though it needed to be renovated. Indeed, most of the houses that looked like our little white house had been deemed uninhabitable and were eventually demolished. Our house was supposedly historic and would be spared. So we were ordered to move into a brand new house just a mile or two away.

The new house was nice enough, I guess, but it had a tiny yard and was completely carpeted. I really missed the hardwood floors of our old house, since carpet is harder to keep clean and wreaks havoc on my allergies. Though the new house had a nice gas range and was wired for FiOS (fiber optic cable and internet service), it was missing the character of our little white house. It was also extremely close to the neighbors on either side of us and lacked the trees and the privacy of our old home.

Oddly enough, I was sad to have to move to a brand new home, where I would live alone. Bill was about to deploy to Iraq for six months. Six weeks after his return in August 2007, we were slated to move to Germany. Despite the fact that we would only live in the new house for about eight months, we still had to move into it. That move wasn't so bad because we were able to move a lot of things on our own before the movers came. But it was still a disruption.

Move #2- Fort Belvoir to Pfaffingen, Germany- September 2007-September 2009

Move #2, from Fort Belvoir to Pfaffingen, Germany, was definitely our most eventful. It's always stressful and exciting to travel out of the country, but it's even moreso when you're going to be living abroad. We don't have children, but we do have dogs. While Bill was deployed, I fretted about all the things I had to do to get ready for the big move-- everything from getting a no fee passport and passing a health exam, to getting our dogs prepared for the flight and up-to-date on all their vet care and the associated paperwork, to preparing our vehicle for shipment overseas.

Aside from the usual preparations that come along with a move, like deep cleaning and purging of items we don't need anymore, Bill and I had to divide our belongings into three groups. One group was stuff that we would put in storage for as long as we were abroad. We had been led to believe that we would likely end up living in an apartment. We also knew that German houses are often a lot smaller than American houses and many of them lack built in closet space. Consequently, we stored a lot of our larger items.

The next group of stuff was unaccompanied baggage. It was a small collection of basic household items like sheets, dishes, glassware, and clothes. The third group of stuff was the furniture that we wanted to have shipped to Germany. To complicate matters, all three of these groups of items were packed by different moving companies who came over a three day period. Good times.

We arrived in Frankfurt, Germany on September 17th, 2007. Once we touched solid ground, our first concern was finding our two beagles, who were no doubt scared and confused. We were about to ask an airport official where live animals arrive when I heard Flea, one of our beagles, start howling. Bill and I followed the sound to find our two hapless pooches, Flea and MacGregor, sitting by a wall next to a couple of confused looking airport officials. An animal inspector checked out our paperwork and we were free to go, with Flea howling the whole way. We got a lot of interesting looks from Germans. We soon found out that beagles aren't a very popular breed in Germany.

Bill rented a car and we drove down to Stuttgart, exhausted from jet lag. As it turned out, housing in Germany was in short supply. We spent six weeks living in a small hotel run by a man from Montenegro and his very colorful staff. Thankfully, he was very much a dog lover, because our two dogs were not too happy about being in such close quarters for so long. Meanwhile, we managed to find a huge house near Tubingen, Germany. It was out in the country and had awesome tile and wood floors. We could have sent all of our belongings to Germany and comfortably filled the house we rented there. I still miss that place, which offered a stunning view of theWurmlinger Chapel, a small church that sat on a hill.

We had an amazing time in Germany and made the most of it by doing lots of traveling around Europe. Unfortunately, our stay in Europe was cut short by a year. Bill was handpicked to take over a position at Fort McPherson in Atlanta, Georgia. While I had nothing against Atlanta, it was definitely (and quite literally) not as cool as Germany. And moving meant yet another complicated international move back to the States. Worst of all, we knew that our stay in the Atlanta area would be short, since Fort McPherson is scheduled to close in September 2011.

In any case, we packed everything up, including our dogs, one of whom had come down with prostate cancer. We were supposed to leave from Stuttgart, Germany on September 14, 2009, but there was an accident involving another aircraft on the runway. Just minutes before we were supposed to take off, our flight was cancelled. We left bright and early on September 15th, one day before what would have been our second anniversary abroad.

Move #3- Stuttgart, Germany to Fayetteville, Georgia- September 2009- April 2011

We arrived at Atlanta's huge and busy airport on the afternoon of September 15, 2009. Our dog, Flea, had gotten very skinny because he was sick with cancer. A couple of people who had been on our flight even sort of chastised me for making him fly, not because he had cancer, but because he was unhappy in his crate and was protesting loudly. But he still had amazing spirit and a voice to match. Once again, we followed the sound of Flea's voice to find our dogs. The folks at the Atlanta airport were very amused by Flea, who was so small and frail, yet could still fill a room with his voice.

We spent nine days at a Homewood Suites in the Buckhead area of Atlanta while we checked in and searched for a new place to live. Thankfully, I had found the Automated Housing Referral Network (AHRN), an online service for military members and their families. I had searched for potential homes from Germany and we were able to set up appointments with landlords before we even got back to the United States.

We ended up renting a custom made home in Fayetteville, Georgia, a charming town about thirty miles south of Atlanta. The house was huge and had been neglected, but it offered something that none of the other homes up for grabs on AHRN did. There was a lot of land and plenty of trees, as well as a creek running down the hill from the house. Our hounds would have plenty of room to bay and sniff. And we had plenty of opportunities to watch wildlife. A family of deer lived in the woods and were almost tame. We also had a crazy male cardinal who visited us every morning, trying to fight with his reflection in the windows.

Sadly, we lost Flea to prostate cancer about eight weeks after we arrived in Georgia. The veterinarians at Fayette Veterinary Medical Center were absolutely wonderful to us in taking care of Flea. And a few weeks after Flea died, we adopted a new beagle named Zane from the Atlanta Beagle Rescue. Zane has made a wonderful companion for our other beagle, MacGregor, and for Bill and me. He's one reason why moving to Georgia was a good thing, even thought we absolutely hated leaving Germany and vow to go back someday, hopefully to live.

Our time in Georgia has been different than our time in Germany was, mainly because we had expected to stay in Germany for three years. We came to Georgia knowing that our time here would be short. We've tried to make the most of it by seeing what the area has to offer. And now, I'm a little sad that we have to leave. We were just getting to know and appreciate the place.

Move #4- Fayetteville, Georgia to Sanford, North Carolina- April 2011- ?

So now it's time to make our fourth move. Bill and I were hoping the National Guard would go ahead and move us to a new assignment that could take Bill into his mandatory retirement in 2014. No such luck. Bill was told he would be continuing his current job and we would be moving to Fort Bragg, in Fayetteville, North Carolina. His current assignment is set to end in 2012, which means that we could possibly have to move again next year. On the other hand, it could turn out that we stay at Bragg until Bill retires, or Bill could get sick of the whole thing and decide to retire early, which might also force us to move again.

Nevertheless, we are now in the middle of our current move. We visited the Fort Bragg area last week and found a cute little house in Sanford, North Carolina, which is about thirty miles north of Fayetteville. I must say, there is a huge difference between Fayetteville, Georgia and Fayetteville, North Carolina. North Carolina's Fayetteville is much larger and more crime ridden than Georgia's Fayetteville is. In fact, just based on first impressions, I don't think I'll spend a lot of time in Fayetteville, North Carolina if I can help it. But I will comment that the Fayetteville area practically pulsates with Army and Air Force pride. The air is thick with the military presence.

Our new house is in a rural location with lots of trees and a small pond in the backyard. I suspect we'll be visited by wildlife on occasion. And when it comes time to leave Sanford, I have a feeling I'll be sad to go... especially since leaving Sanford may also mean we're leaving Army life. On the other hand, it might also mean just one more move. My hat is definitely off to military families who have moved a dozen or more times. I'm definitely learning to be more careful about what I wish for.