Respect. It's Mutual.

A military relationship is a special type of relationship. It's one of those things where you don't completely understand unless you've been there. We experience things that most people would never experience in their lifetime.

Many times, those who are in military relationships tend to befriend others who are also in military relationships. It helps us to feel like we aren't alone and that there's someone who actually understand the obstacles that we encounter on a daily basis.

But now there are so many people out there who put down women (or men) who are in these relationships, or "MilSOs." There are military wives who look down on military girlfriends. My question is why? What makes the wives so different than the girlfriends? Don't we both face the reality of deployment and training? Don't we both experience the same things?

Then there's the whole "dependa" or military spouse bashing that is occurring. I don't understand why it's a bad thing for a wife to take pride in the fact that her husband is in the military. It should be seen as a good thing that she's supportive of his career choice.

We shouldn't be tearing each other down. We should be supporting one another. Sometimes, we only have each other to turn to through the difficult things that we face.