Hello, and happy Wednesday! I hope your day is off to a great start.
I would normally have posted this Monday, but I wanted to save it for today. For those of us in the United States, today is Veteran’s Day. It’s a day to honor all who have served in our nation’s military. I’m one of them, and I appreciate the gratitude. Still, as I do every year, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the spouses and families whose support makes it all possible.
In my 12 years of Naval service, I deployed to the Indian Ocean three times. This was long before the days of cell phones and global internet. Our only means of communication was good old-fashioned snail mail. Sometimes the letters came out of sequence, and the answer to a specific question may not come for several weeks. That’s just the way it was.
It’s hard not to worry, especially when you find out about challenges your loved ones are facing. And there were hazards onboard as well. Less than a week after I arrived onboard, we had a fire below deck that burned all night and made US news. And every cruise would claim a few lives to onboard accidents. I remember every one of them. Our wives knew this all too well.
But we didn’t have to worry about how things were being managed in our absence. I deployed before our daughter’s first birthday, and my wife was left in a strange city with no transportation (she wasn’t licensed yet), little money, and a toddler to raise. She walked a mile each way along snow-covered walks to buy whatever groceries would fit in the stroller.
We fixed that issue before I deployed again. But when I came home the house was warm, the lights were on, our daughter was healthy, and there were no eviction notices on the door. She made enlisted pay keep a roof over our heads and food on the table, which was nothing short of a miracle. The Navy had a theory on that – “Your wife wasn’t issued in your seabag.”
I knew every time we went to sea that she’d be on the pier waiting for me when we got home, whether that was three days or seven months. And yes, I knew some guys who found out the hard way they weren’t as fortunate. Separation is hard on relationships. But the overwhelming majority of us never had to worry about that. And our wives didn’t have to worry about us.
As a ship and crew, we were able to make all of our operational commitments, plus a few extras that nobody had planned. Part of that was training. Part was leadership. Part was keeping the ship and planes in working order. But the biggest part was the ability to focus on our job without the distraction of challenges on the home front. We knew home would be okay.
And that’s true in a lot of professions. After my time in the Navy, I drove a long-haul semi for a while. If you see a truck on the road, odds are there’s a family at home keeping things going. The same is true of firefighters, police officers, flight crews, ship’s crews, oil rig operators, and a hundred other professions. When they go to work, somebody gets left behind.
Those are the people I think we should celebrate today, and every day. For me, being at sea wasn’t all that hard. I worked here, I slept up there, and I ate down there. That was my little world. But I also knew things at home would be fine, and that let me focus on my job seven days a week, twelve hours a day. I think our families deserved the medals.
So, as you think about the veterans in your life, or anyone whose job takes them away from home and sometimes into danger, take a moment to thank the unsung heroes who make it all possible. It’s hard living with your life’s partner or a parent whose job makes them unable to be home with you. Harder, even, than being the person who’s away.
That’s all for today. I’ll get back to the regular schedule in a few days, but this is something I wanted to share today. Thanks for listening, and have an awesome day!
© 2026 Dave Glardon – All rights reserved
