They protect our country with everything they've got. Us civilians appreciate what they do, but unfortunately some of our service members come with a price- the military spouses. Here are some of the craziest stories out there, brought to you by Reddit.
u/soldier01073 asked: Service members of reddit. What is your worst military wife story?
.....holy sh*t.
I am a military spouse, but worked as a DOD employee with the Marines. Got a call that a military spouse was in the hospital, her place on base housing had gotten broken into, the 9 month pregnant spouse was beaten and taken by ambulance to the hospital. The assault caused a miscarriage. I was devastated and went to the hospital with several officers in the Marine's chain of command. One of the nurses tending her looked me in the eye and said, "I am very interested in how this is going to play out." I was so confused.
The 9 month pregnant assault victim was given an ultrasound and blood work performed upon being admitted to the hospital. She hadn't been pregnant. Her "due date" was the next day and she's been faking the pregnancy the whole time. She beat herself up and carved herself up with a knife then made up the assault story resulting in miscarriage as a way to cover up the 9 months of lying to her husband about being pregnant.
I've never seen this level of crazy until 3 months later, when said Marine reunited with bat sh*t crazy girl even after all that.
We salute you!
GiphyStanding gate guard in Washington DC. Officer's wife drives through the gate and presents her ID. I wave her through. She doesn't move, asking me if I forgot something. I said no, I didn't believe I did. She said I forgot to salute her, pointing to the blue sticker on her windshield. I leaned close to her windshield and saluted the sticker, wishing it a good afternoon.
I got removed from that duty.
That's f*cked up.
I was stationed at Ft. Knox Ky in the late 80s. A soldier's child turned up missing. Damn near every solider on Ft. Knox was looking for this kid. We looked for days. Kid never turns up.
I leave, and move on.
Several years later I'm sent back to Ft. Knox. Out of the blue, a bunch of activity is happening at a park several miles away.
The little girl turned up, (some of her anyway) and it turns out that the soldiers wife (the girls step mom) killed the girl. The soldier came home found out and hid the body in the park.
The whole case was solved because the older sister of the girl was starting to get worried she was next. Told a teacher who got the police involved.
That the worst I've heard of, over 20+ years in the Army. Plenty of cheating, plenty of other stuff.
Wack.
I got restationed back in the states from Germany.
I flew my German girlfriend over and we ended up getting married. She went back to Germany 4 days later and I never saw her again.
Wack.
Yikes.
GiphyOh, I'm gonna post some of my friend's highlights. She was the midwife on an air force base. Delivered lots of babies.
- Colonel brought his 16 year old daughter in because she was pregnant. Turns out the father was a new junior enlisted. He did not last long in the military.
- Dude's wife left him, and moved in with her boyfriend off base while he was deployed. She got knocked up. Since they were still married, she was still going to the base for medical care. Their divorce wasn't final by her due date, so she still got to go on base and deliver. Her soon to be ex husband (the military guy) had his buddies in security forces put a security flag on his soon to be ex wife's boyfriend. The boyfriend couldn't be on base for the birth of his child.
- And, always the favorite, babies coming out with the wrong ethnic background of the father was at least a once a year thing.
What a thing to come home to.
A friend of mine came home one day early from a year long deployment. Wife was busy screwing another guy on the couch. In the bedroom was a baby she had never mentioned, fathered by yet a third guy.
The best way to meet someone.
Oh man so many. One friend in the Corps, a first term sergeant who HATED every minute he was in uniform. He reenlisted so she could go to school. Left for deployment after reenlistment, came back to a divorce and a drained bank account.
Had another Sergeant who met his wife while he and like seven other guys were hooking up with her. He decided he needed to marry her. So many stories there, but I mean he probably deserved them. 'Cause I mean wow.
Don't do it.
GiphyA guy in my shop (Air Force) deployed to Iraq for 4.5 months. Before he left he signed over general power of attorney to his wife. While he was gone, she started f*cking another guy in our shop, then signed the divorce paperwork as his power of attorney and his rights to see his kids, as well as draining his bank account.
She went to live with the other guy in my shop and his friend off base. They were both arrested for check fraud when trying to pass off a check that was the roommates in the shoppette on base.
The guy she divorced eventually got full custody of the kids and the other guy in my shop got kicked out of the AF.
There were other stories of cheating and all of that kind of sh*t, but this one takes the cake, she actively worked to ruin his life when all he did was love his kids and get deployed to Iraq.
Don't give anyone general power of attorney, ever. I don't care how much you trust them or how much you think they love you. Don't do it. You can give them specialized power of attorney that only allows them to handle your affairs that you very specifically need them to handle.
These Conspiracy Theories Are Easy to Debunk | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
The last line of this takes the cake.
Our neighbors, two, brought us some stories.
One. Unit deployed and she met a new guy. Used power of attorney to divorce the husband overseas and married the new guy so quick she was able to stay on base in the same house. First husband came home and ended up being in the same platoon as second husband who now lived in his house with his kids and all his belongings.
Two. When we first moved in on base we had a neighbor that was super friendly. Wife told us she had cancer so her brother was staying with her to take care of her. We think nothing of it. A few months later they moved out to live off base. Normal thing so no reason to be skeptical. Fast forward a few months and I'm shoveling the driveway and a guy from next door comes over to say hi. I say hi and welcome him as a new neighbor.
He's not a new neighbor, he's had that house for a couple years. I got confused and asked about the woman who had moved out recently. He told me that woman was his wife, the brother was her lover, she didn't have cancer, and she spent all his money on Farmville then moved out with everything they owned.
What a garbage person.
My brother in-law was on both sides of sh*tty cheating stories.
He married a woman he chatted to online for a few weeks when he was 19. Then he had to go to Iraq. A month after he left she told him that he got her pregnant. He comes home after 6 months then she has the baby....the baby definitely is not his.
Fast forward 10 years. He's married to an awesome chick we all like. She works a job and takes care of everything around the house. He cheats on her with a 18 year old girl that worked at Sonic. She catches him and leaves for a weekend to go stay with her sister to figure out what to do. He puts all her stuff in cardboard boxes out under the carport and moves in the new girl.
Do you know who my husband is?
GiphyThis is more of an annoyance than anything.
While helping load my sergeant and other members of my public affairs unit up for deployment (I was a late add on, deploying some weeks later) a somewhat large woman with about 4 kids (oldest was about 14 or 15) came up to me after clapping her hands and shouting 'ducks in a row!' All her kids lined up and lock step marched behind her, up to me.
She ordered me to watch her kids while she did something. Umm...no. I'm not a baby sitter and if anything goes wrong, I will not be held accountable.
So these kids proceed to tear into the stacks of duffle bags, ruck sacks and assault bags waiting to be loaded on a truck while no one chaperoned them. This woman shows back up, shouting 'do you know who my husband is?' (yeah, he's just a staff sergeant in communications) and was furious I wasn't watching her kids.
Other higher ranking types eventually shuffled her and the kids away.
I've had other incidents with spouses before, but this is the one that stands out.
How lazy.
Late to the party but here goes. I wasn't the person in the situation, but my friend was and told me about it. My friend is military, so he travels and moves frequently. He owns a house where I live, but was unable to live in it for a few years due to the job and rented it out to several people. The family that rented were a nightmare.
They were also military, so my friend thought they'd be good tenants. The service member was deployed soon after moving in, so the spouse stayed in the home for several months by herself. She was really lazy, and often called my friend (who lived across the country at the time) to try and figure out fixes to her mild inconveniences. Things like a lawn mower not working, or billing issues, this lady called about every issue she encountered even if she was the cause of it. My friend had to pay people to fix all of these things that she was causing just because she didn't want to take care of her problems.
When they finally moved out my buddy told me to head over and take a look at the place. It was terrible, the bathroom mirror was all messed up, they painted rooms without permission, there was even a giant hole in the wall. My friend was not happy to say the least.
Uninvited.
Obligatory not a service member but, I work at a summer camp at Carney Park in Naples. The Park was used by both Italian and Naval Government. We have forrest fires just on the other side of park borders with fire crew on standby. The wife of an E8 went up to the gate and demanded that the Officer in charge of security demanded they evacuate the park and that they due something about the fires. At this time it is a good time to note the fires were in Italian Jurisdiction, the Italians simply didn't care.
Anyway the Security said they would evacuate the park as soon as they got the order. The lady went apesh*t, one phone call later and the Security officer (who's son was a camper) and Naval equivalent of the first sergeant (also in the park) drove down down from the hill where they were monitoring the fire and told the angry spouse if she wanted to leave she was free to anytime she wanted. When she went to pout to her husband (Airforce) he told her there was nothing he could do. Then she complained to the camp director (also had staff monitoring the fires) and requested the same) that was when she got a much needed lesson and was told her husbands rank meant nothing and she had no say in the matter. She was not invited back to work the next year.
Yikes.
GiphyNot a service member but a now veteran's wife.
This story is my husband's so I'll have to give him credit for it. (All names have been changed)
So there was this Soldier (I don't remember his rank) we will call him Dallas. Now Dallas's First Sgt. was a well respected individual. Someone people should look up to. You know all of that. And from what I heard, he wanted to be just like him.
So Dallas has a 24 hr. shift that he has to work that night which was unexpected but he was instructed by his first Sgt. to work it. Whatever, it happens all the time. Well, later in his shift, Dallas forgot something at the house so he got his buddy to fill in at his post to grab it at the house really quick and didn't tell his first Sgt.
What does Dallas find when he gets home? His wife, and his First Sgt. Having sex on their living room floor as soon as he walks in. She's naked and so is he.
Word spreads fast all around the company, then to other companies. Then the whole base knows and the story is later used in a meeting for the wives of how to overcome loneliness. (That I had to endure) Not only that the first Sgt. Was demoted but Dallas and his wife stayed together. And the wife now having a bit of infamy, has all the soldiers flirting with her at a company family event while all Dallas can do is get pissed, drink beer and watch as his wife flirts with his fellow soldiers.
Thank goodness this had a happy ending.
I'll put in my treo cents.
I an the product of one of these type of stories. My birth father was in the army, tank division in Texas late '70s early '80s. Wanted to date a girl, she didn't. So he started dating her underage sister. Crossed into Mexico to get married since her parents didn't like him. Moved her into base housing apartments with him.
She apparently suffered from mental health issues. They had me in late '82. She started cheating on him, having mental breaks, lots of crazy sh*t including attempting to kill me three separate times and setting the apartment on fire. He was told by his command to either divorce her, or be kicked out. He got kicked out. This is after he turned down West Point more than once since she didn't want to leave Texas.
Happy ending for me, she lost custody, he signed custody over to HIS father, and I was adopted by my grandparents. I didn't know any of this until I was 13. I was two months old when my grandparents got me. A lot to unpack as an early teen, and a lot of personal work went into working it out for myself. But I am fairly well adjusted and happy with a family of my own now.
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.