“When he told me that he would be deployed, I was a wreck for a few days,” my friend, Hannah Wolf, told me last week over Face Time when we discussed her husband’s recent six-month deployment to Turkey. At the time of his departure, the couple had not even been married a year yet, and Hannah knew that six months would drag by slowly. She was not alone, however; thousands of military spouses endure deployments every year.
According to the Sloan Work and Family Research Network, over 50 percent of military marriages undergo deployment and only 43 percent of military spouses feel that they can cope adequately with a 6 to 7 month deployments. Adjusting to married life is difficult as it is but being physically separated for half a year or longer only adds to the challenges. Myles and Hannah Wolf received word of his deployment shortly after their wedding.
“I really had not thought much about what all Air Force life would involve,” Hannah said. “I knew that at some point he would be deployed but honestly, before we were married all I was thinking about was actually getting married to him.”
Myles left in July 2017 while Hannah packed up their small apartment and traveled back to her hometown of Prattville, Alabama, where she moved back in with her parents. Although this was an adjustment for Hannah, she was thankful to be surrounded by family while she was away from her husband.
Every weekday morning, Hannah climbed out of bed, brewed a pot of coffee, and selected her outfit for the day. By 7 a.m., she was pulling her car into the parking lot of her full-time job at a daycare where she taught a four-year old class. Her fifteen preschoolers kept her mind occupied during the day, but at night when she closed her bedroom door she was reminded that Myles was not there.
Although the couple communicated via video chat as much as they possibly could, Hannah explained that because of the time difference and because he worked six days a week, quality communication was few and far between and only having limited contact with her husband was difficult for their marriage. “Once you are committed to someone like that they become the most important person in the world to you,” Hannah explained.
She spent much of her time alone, which forced her to develop a sense of independence. “I had to learn to handle problems on my own without him [Myles] being there to give me advice or to solve the problem himself. I became more assertive,” said Hannah. In the days leading up to Myles returning, Hannah took care of moving their belongings back to Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Georgia.
The day came when deployment ended, and Myles arrived home safe at last. “We spent days just catching up on things in our lives that we didn’t get to talk about while he was away and it was like we were never apart and just picked up where we left off,” Hannah said.
The hardships of being separated during the first year of marriage made their reunion that much sweeter and stronger. If Hannah and Myles could conquer six months apart, then they can conquer almost anything together.
By Anna O’Neal