A true soldier at heart, my husband is struggling lately with knowing that he can never again be in the military. We just passed the 1 year anniversary of his retirement, and it is finally hitting him. He wants so much to be active duty in the Army, stationed from base to base, experiencing the world. Other than the fact that he would have to leave Connor and I, he wishes he could serve again in Iraq. I don't know if this is a withdrawal phase he is experiencing, or if he is finally realizing the extent of his injuries and that things will never be the same again.
It has been nearly 5 years since his crash. The first year-and-a-half he spent in and out of the hospital, unable to work. Eventually he went back to work only at the desk until November 2009. Because he was unable to work a full 40 hours each week, and sometimes he could only make it in one or two days a week, he was transferred to the Warrior Transition Unit at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, to outprocess for his disability retirement. In June of 2010, he was officially retired. Yet all that time he was still a "part" of the military. Now he has lost that. He doesn't get calls from his military buddies as often because their lives are different without him around. He recently found out that he would probably be in Iraq right now if he was still able, performing duties that he would love to perform.
He works on a new degree from home, and upon completion he will be able to perform some contract work from home. But staying in the house almost every day adds to the desire to be back in his old routine. I'm open for suggestions on a way to get him some regular out-of-the-house time. I hope that will make it easier for him. The best I can do right now since he cannot depend on his body to maintain any type of schedule is developing a nice outdoor area on our property. He and I were planning to create an area, but he physically has not been able to help much. So I'm doing the best I can to fix it up for him, and hopefully making a nice outdoor retreat will give him a way to get out of the confines of these walls.
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