From my blog yesterday, you can probably tell that I rather much have a mind of my own.  I'm pretty much going to do what I'm going to do.  In my defense, Ken knew that when he married me.  He was completely up front about it.  "I want a woman for my wife who can manage on her own.  Who can think things out and do what is best--because I will be gone most of the time."

He was right about that.  Some of the ground Marines got to take their families with them overseas and had 3 years tours.  But the aviators were always moving.  Almost every year--practicing air maneuvers, and carrier landings in all the great bodies of water worldwide.  If there was a carrier, or a base anywhere in the world, Marine aviators were going there.  Their families didn't.

He was overseas twice--both times for 13 month tours--during one six year period.  No phone calls.  No internet.  No visits.  Just letters.  And that didn't count all the deployments in between.  Two weeks.  Six weeks. Two months.  So I was in charge of everything in our lives most of the time.  Ken had been right.  He needed a woman who could manage on her own--me.  Did I like it?  I never thought about it.  (Some of the wives weren't bent that way and the divorce rate was high.)

So naming a baby what I wanted to name him was just one more thing in my mind.  In my defense, Ken thought it was really funny, and told the story to all his fighter-pilot friends every time there was a Marine party.  Which was embarrassing.  But he knew what he was getting when he married me.

Every time he came home, we would renegotiate the territory.  Once, when he got back from overseas, I handed him the checkbook and bank statements and said, "I'm pretty sick of this.  Why don't you do it for awhile."  But after two or three months, he said, "There's not enough money to cover everything."  I said, "I know.  It's called juggling."

"I don't juggle," he said.  "I fly airplanes.  So, I'll make the money.  And you spend it."  And that's how we did it.  It worked for us.  It probably wouldn't work for most families.  I don't think there are many men who could manage woman like me.  But he had what it took.  I adored him.