My First Battle Buddies

On June 16, I left my San Francisco home of three years and moved to Southern Alabama to be with my fiancé, who at that point, was in the beginnings of flight school. Stepping off that plane in the Alabama summer heat, I’ve never felt so many emotions. I was ecstatic that, after four years apart, my fiancé and I would finally have our first home together. I was terrified that I had just quit my job at Google and didn’t have a clue what I’d do for work. But most of all, I was so nervous about meeting people and finding my first battle buddies. Would it be difficult to find friends?

After a crazy week of signing for our home, moving in, trying to get settled, ordering furniture, and all those other fun things, I finally had a chance to breathe.

Now what?!

My soldier was in class, and I had no friends, no job, and not a clue where to begin.

Cue the Fort Rucker Facebook page, something I joined a few weeks past but hadn’t been actively participating on. While scrolling through the page one day, I noticed a girl asking for recommendations for puppy trainers. Now, if you know me, you know I am obsessed with puppies, so I clicked on her profile. She looked about my age and had just moved from a big city to Alabama with her husband, who was also in flight school. I did a little happy dance and tried my best not to scream out “HI! I THINK WE HAVE A LOT IN COMMON—LET’S BE FRIENDS!”

Instead, I sent her a message welcoming her to post, explained that I was new as well, and asked if she wanted to grab coffee.

A few days later, we went on a walk together and immediately hit it off, talking about the enormous change Southern Alabama was from our cities, her recent wedding and my upcoming one, how we were both new to the military world, and right then, I knew I found my first Battle Buddy!

The next week, my new Battle Buddy and her husband asked if my husband and I wanted to grab dinner with two other flight students and their significant others. My nerves kicked in for a moment, wondering if we would all have things in common, if we would get along, etc. It took about three minutes within meeting each other for the eight of us to feel like we were old friends, and once again, I was overly ecstatic about my good fortune.

We had formed our little crew, and not a moment too soon! My three new girlfriends all had their service members attending a several-week-long training, and that’s when I leaned how quickly the military can bring people together. The girls and I ran errands together, formed a wine club, exercised together, had barbecues, and supported each other through those few weeks.

When the boys joined us at home, we had our full crew of eight back!

Now, I realize that I have been extremely fortunate to make such good friends so soon, especially on my first Army post. But, it has truly given me confidence to reach out to other spouses to make friends and cast aside any self doubt or shyness I may have as my service member and I continue on this military journey!