I'm Sherri Dunbar. My husband, Staff Sergeant Mike Dunbar, has been in the Army twelve years. We came over to Germany in the spring of 1998 with our son Caleb, who's 7 now, and our daughter Rosie, who's 4. We live in a stairwell apartment in Army housing, three floors up, with a view of a very German hillside and a very American playground.

In June Mike's unit went into Kosovo with the NATO peacekeeping force. I started this page so the grandparents back in Ohio could keep up without me writing the same letter eight times, and then other spouses started finding it. Hi, everybody.

A note about security: I don't post Mike's unit, exactly where he is, or when anybody is moving. Please don't ask me to in the guestbook or e-mail. If you're family, you already know how to reach me.

March 24, 1999. NATO started the air strikes against Yugoslavia. Mike's unit went on alert and he started coming home late and leaving early. We watched AFN every night after the kids went to bed.

March 31, 1999. Three American soldiers were captured near the Macedonian border. They were from a unit here in Germany, and it felt like it happened to family. The chapel was full that night. I don't think anybody on post slept well for a month.

May 2, 1999. They were released! I heard it on the radio in the commissary parking lot and cried right there in the van with a trunk full of groceries.

June 10, 1999. The bombing stopped. Two days later, on June 12, the first NATO troops went into Kosovo. We all knew what came next.

June 19, 1999. Mike left. Caleb was very brave at the send-off and then asked to sleep with the light on. Rosie hid Mike's boots so he couldn't go. (He had other boots.)

July. First phone call, eleven days after he left. Four minutes long and the best four minutes of the summer. He says it's hot, dusty, and everyone lives in tents while they build a real camp.

August. Letters come in bunches. Once we got six on the same day. He can get to a computer now and then, so I get short e-mails that always end "tell the kids I love them, more later." He sends drawings of the camp dog for Rosie.

September 24, 1999. School started, Caleb's in second grade and loves it. The leaves are turning. People are talking about who comes home when, but I've learned not to believe anything until it's official. We're hoping for before Christmas.

• The spouse network. Our unit's family support group meets once a month and calls around when there's news. The rear detachment folks have been great. Go to the meetings even when you don't feel like it. That's when you need them most.
• A routine. Same dinner time, same bedtime, same Saturday pancakes. Kids handle the missing better when the rest of life stays put.
• Letting the kids help. Caleb keeps a paper chain on the kitchen wall. Rosie draws a picture for every letter.
• Turning off the news when it gets to be too much. I know more about the Balkans than I ever wanted to.
• Taking care of me. Tuesday coffee with the other wives in my stairwell. A walk every morning. Being honest when I'm having a bad day.
• Getting help when it's more than a bad day. The chaplains and Army Community Service are there for us, and nobody thinks less of you for going.

(dictated to Mom) My daddy is in Kosovo helping the people get their houses back. He sleeps in a tent. There is a dog there. I want a dog. When Daddy comes home we are going to the zoo and I will show him my new shoes. The end.

• Care Package Central - what to send a deployed soldier, and what not to. I learned the hard way about chocolate in July.
• The Navy Wife's Survival Guide - different service, same feelings.
• The Pentagon neighborhood for lots more military family pages.

Spouses, family, anybody who needs a friend: [email protected]


visitors since we got to Germany in 1998
Last updated Friday, September 24, 1999
© 1999 Sherri Dunbar