The Reserves...

[highteknology]

let me set the back story...my sister joined the Army Reserves, she has wanted to do it for like 3 years now. This post is for my benefit and I'm hoping that you all can offer insight into what I should know as far as being someone who has a sibling in the reserves. First off i'm super protective of my sister. Ever since my mom died, almost a year ago, i have been the one to watch after my sister. Obviously this is gonna be super hard once she is gone. I don't want any replies on how to try and get her to not join, she has already made up her mind and i will back her on it. I am just clueless on what to expect.

Any insight?

[Oz]

Hopefully she'll come out a much harder person, and you won't feel the need to "protect" her.

[00accord44]

Let me spin a little yarn here-

The day of the Super Bowl this year, I let my sister drive my car for the first time EVER. She had to get to work and it was going to be difficult for her and my mom to share her car that night. I was hesitant because I have summer (Z rated) tires on my car and the Chicago roads have been wet and slippery lately causing me to slide from time to time. But Sunday was a clear day and the morning forecast said it would be dry. So I gave her a pep talk about how to handle a slide, how to navigate our snow clogged alley, and left her the spare key.

My friend came and picked me up on the way to our Super Bowl party and as we watched Fox pregame, a weather alert popped up announcing a flash blizzard that would dump 6 inches of wet, slippery snow with frozen road conditions later on in the evening. I was worried my inexperienced sister would hit the slippery road and slide off into a tree or something, but there was absolutely nothing I could do at that point. Once the game was over and I was dropped off at home, I text my sis to tell her I was going to get up there to swap cars with my moms and drive the deathmobile home. I got a text back "Im already in the garage". When I looked in there I saw she had even backed the car in just how I like it.



The moral of that story is, you never know how strong, smart, or able your younger siblings are until you let them go and let them be tested. By no means is driving a car through snow and ice the same as entering the armed forces, but she may be more prepared for this than you realize. Its okay to worry about her and to be concerned, but she's obviously not a baby anymore and you can't keep her under your protection forever. No matter what she does or where she goes, she's still your little sister. If you and your mom did your job properly then she'll keep her head about her and come through her training a much stronger person.

[Mason_R1]

Depends on what her jobs is, but the military is all what you make it...I've been in almost two years and have realized that maybe it's not for me, but I got an associate's and two years of police experience out of it, it's just not my career that I want right now. As far as specifically being a sibling goes, just be supportive....

[kublah]

Traditionally when people talk about reserve branches of the military, it was training close to home with occaisional longer missions to support the full-time force, so ideally you wouldn't be too far away for a long time. Unfortunately lately it seems most reservists have already spent more prolonged time than they probably should in war zones, and that makes it a little bit harder to swallow.

It's easy to understand why that will be hard, but as you already understand it's her life to do with as she pleases, and being supportive will do way more good than a lot of worry. Some comfort can be found in the fact that there will be a whole lot of really good people watching out for her and trying to keep her safe when you can't be around, but it will also the job of some of those same people to order her into harm's way.

These are all things that all people involved with the military have to deal with, it's just part of the bargain.

[AtomicAutoSports]

I agree completely with what 00accord44 said. It's hard to watch sometimes because you want to protect them from all harm. I have a younger sister myself, and it breaks my heart when I see her upset...but I also have come to realize that she will never become her own person if she's overprotected.

On another note, from what I hear the reserves isn't too bad. I've never actually been in the army so I can't say from first hand experience, but I do live in an area where there are a lot of marines.

[highteknology]

an update...just as i was reading these replies she texts me saying that she just finished signing her papers and taking the oath. i'm really proud of her taking this kind of step. her whole life she has always seemed a little Dependant on me or my dad, or my mom when she was alive, to show her some sort of direction. I guess i'm still scared for her mainly because I have a "brother" (one of the guys in my Fraternity) that is currently in the regular Army, has been to Iraq three times and now is stationed in Germany. The stories he tells will haunt anybody. I just don't want my sister to go through that. She is going to be a medic so I'm guessing that's pretty good and hopefully she won't see too much combat type situations. I can deal with her being away for long periods of time. (i say this now but lets see when it actually comes down to it).

Thanks for all the responses. The pure fact that none of them were jokingly or anything like that made me feel more comfortable with the whole situation.