Unless you have an Army background or enjoy American History, there is a fair chance that you don’t know that June 14, 1775 is the official birthday of the United States Army. The flag was not actually adopted until June 14, 1777 and Flag Day  not officially until 1916, although it had been informally celebrated in the 1800s. Anyway, it has been 239 years since the various Colonial Militias and “Armies” agreed that reorganization and formation of a Unites States of America Army was needed in order to achieve the independence they were fighting for.

In the 22 years that I served in the Army and the 29+ that my husband did, there were of course bumps along the way, frustrations that come from any large organization. In fact, neither of us intended to make the Army a career, but those are stories for another time. And I would be less than honest if I didn’t say that some of the events that have occurred in the Army (and the military in general) over the past several years haven’t deeply concerned us, but those concerns are not the subjects of this post.

I often refer to myself as an “inadvertent pioneer” and that is because I was in the position to break some gender barriers due to the circumstance of timing, not through some intended plan. However, it came about, I and some of the other women during that same time frame did break the barriers while most of the women left service after their initial assignments. Even with that, they took away valuable lessons and that is one of the things that I tell anyone who is eligible for military service. The system is not designed for everyone to stay for a career, but for young men and women who can serve, there are few other things you can do in your life that will hold you in such good stead. The skills you learn, the code of conduct you adopt, the comprehension of teamwork and leadership you develop will carry through whatever you do after service. Sadly, in some cases what you learn is by observing poor examples of this, but the military is composed of human beings and they are not all magically transformed by putting on a uniform. For the most part, however, they are the small percentage that you will not spend too much time around.

I’ve had a number of people ask me that of all the topics that I write about, why haven’t I written a book about my Army experience. The simple answer is that I’m not ready to do that yet. One of these days, but not yet.