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Ah yes… The blessed PCS! It is an intense time of adventure, uncertainty and new beginnings. But we want to take some of the guesswork out of it, so check out the images below for more PCS info (don’t miss our most popular feature, Post with the Most!), or keep reading to our latest PCS features from our blog.
As I near the end of my time living in Germany while my wife serves in the United States Army, this is Part II of a three-part series, examining my thoughts and feelings as I prepare to head back to America and leave Germany behind. Part I examined what I will not miss about Germany and can be found here. Part II, below, examines what I will miss about Germany. Part III examines what I’ve learned during my time in Germany.
We travel a lot by car. In part, we travel by car because it’s expensive to fly and partly because Brandon doesn’t like to fly without a parachute. We’ve driven from Colorado to Arizona, Alabama, Florida and even to Canada. Traveling as a military family is a bit different from regular civilian journeys as we often move to unfamiliar areas and don’t return to a previous duty station. With PCS season upon the military, I decided to collect my tried-and-true travel essentials to share with prospective movers; I hope this helps!
A huge part of PCS organization is the traditional purging of all the stuff. From tossing the old and broken to scheduling a furniture donation pick-up, the need for intense organizational skills is required to avoid paying for an overweight household shipment and wasting valuable space in your new garage with unopened boxes of unnecessary items.
Living in Alaska has been an amazing experience for me, but soon it will be time to say goodbye. If I’m being honest, I am heartbroken. I never imagined that I’d love living here, but I do, because Alaska is breathtakingly beautiful, even at -20 degrees in the dead of winter.
When I flew to Richmond, Virginia, in February, 2017, it was to help my new husband PCS from his AIT at Fort Lee.
It was like a vacation. Ten days at a Candlewood Suites, during which I slept, read books I’d had on my list for years, and binged Once Upon a Time, all while he out-processed.
In the evenings, we made dinner together, explored the surrounding area while playing Pokemon Go, and enjoyed being together after months apart.
Lovely. And at the time, I thought every PCS would be as dreamy.
My husband and I love watching shows and movies. I remember this being one of the things we even discussed in pre-martial sessions—how we liked uncovering the “story” together. But the longer we’re together, we also notice and poke fun at each other for little habits, and eventually, our habits overlap.
Many moves ago, my husband, our infant daughter, and I moved back to the United States after an overseas posting. It was not my choice, and I was not happy. I went into it with my arms crossed and my eyes closed.
At night I dreamed about my old house, my old neighborhood, and the good friends I left behind. I emailed my “old” friends every week. When I met someone in my new community, I couldn’t help but tell them all about the great life I had before.
My wife Jules, myself, and our three children Hunter (12), Eva (10), and Acadia (8) were scheduled to be stationed in Germany for three years, and the way my wife’s Army career was looking, it was possible we could squeeze in a fourth year. Then the military does what it always does, and our world was turned upside down. Jules was selected for a position at Fort Lee in Virginia and our three or four years living and traveling in Europe was cut short to two.
How do I help the children cope with learning that, at 18 months and in six more months, they will once again have to pick up their lives and move? How do I cope with picking up my life and moving at the two-year mark?
Your spouse comes home from work, tosses the car keys on the hook, squeezes the kids.
Then, turns to you and says, “Honey, I have good news and I have bad news. Which do you want first?”