Reply #6: At least Guard/Reserve spouses live in "civilization." [View All]

[trogdor]

Imagine being holed up at Fort Drum. It's winter. There's three feet of snow on the ground, and nine inches in your driveway with a four-foot drift in front of your garage door. Rear Detachment has already told you not to expect help shoveling yourself out.

Even if you could get out, where would you go? To work in Watertown? Puhleeze! Can you say, "would you like fries with that?" You'd be lucky if your paycheck covered child care with enough left for gas.

Your upstairs neighbor is a complete idiot. He has two large dogs that he leaves on the balcony outside in -30 weather while he goes to the club until it closes, while you get to listen to them bark. The MP's are little help; they tell you to take it up with Housing on Monday. It's Saturday night. When your neighbor the idiot returns and lets the dogs back in, they run around in the living room for half an hour, making your chandelier shake and knocking several pictures from the wall.

Your next-door neighbor is abusive and likes to scream at his wife at the top of his lungs at all hours. Again, unless the MP's catch him in the act, there ain't much they can do but tell him nicely to knock it off for the fifteenth time.

Your across the street neighbor has a teenager who hangs out with a bunch of shady characters. You did indeed manage to get this one kicked out of housing, but he was replaced with somebody who has even bigger dogs then your upstairs neighbor who menace the children.

Think this is a made-up horror story? This is life in the military 'hood, folks. Enjoy.