Marriage during the aviation pipeline

[Skywalker]

If this has already been answered please forgive me but, for those of you who got married prior to joining the Navy and going to flight school, Any advice? I've been married for a little over a year and while I am confident that it was the right decision based on the circumstances, I am acutely aware that Navy flight school is going to put a ton of stress on most relationships during the pipeline and beyond. How did you all balance it?

You'll have gaps between stages of training - take leave, take trips, make memories. Try to make a couple of hours pf time for your spouse during the week - even if that's a movie or a board game, just something. Make sure they know you get your schedule 24 hours at a time and that the schedule is non-negotiable. Explore the local area together - the Pensacola beaches are legendary and has great restaurants (Corpus less so, Kingsville certainly not). There are also lots of places within liberty radius of the training bases that are worth checking out. If you already have one or more hobbies in common, make sure you're continuing to invest in that, even if to a lesser extent.

My wife and I make a game of making sure we've explored every park, museum, and high-rated restaurant within the liberty radius. Over the course of pool times and 72s/96s, we make sure to see all of the national parks that we can.

 

[taxi1]

I actually think flight school is a great time to be married. When I went through last century, I went from FAM 1 to wings in 11 months, flying twice a day 5-6 days per week. Yet we still found time to hit the beach, go to bars, watch movies at the beer and movies place, etc. Based on what I read here, flight school pacing these days is a lot slower. You will have down time.

One thing I recommend is to get into a local friends group. We played beach volleyball, and hooked up with a regular weekend crew at the beach. My wife is a horse person, and hung out at a local ranch between Pensacola and Milton. The navy can be overbearing, and the outside activities give space.

So don’t dread it, look forward to it. It’ll be a fun adventure.