Military base etiquette: Rules and guidelines for living on base

Dating apps are becoming more popular, and while plenty of people use them to find love, others opt for one-night stands. Apps like Tinder allow users who “match” with one another to skip the small talk and potentially hook up immediately. And if they’re over it, they can block the person and never see or hear from them again.

The first seven years of our marriage were taken up with active duty service. Still, we were lucky: My wife never deployed during her years of active duty. We thought that if we told them about the return date instead of the.

Staying in touch can be especially challenging for military couples: Cell service or internet access can be spotty in certain locations and living in different time zones can make it difficult to find a mutually convenient time to chat. The longest stretch of time at once was a yearlong deployment. It takes effort to stay connected over the miles. A piece of your heart is constantly missing.

On top of that, the partners of service members are tasked with managing day-to-day life more or less on their own. I make sure my husband gets a card for every holiday, even the silly ones. I usually try to find personalized stationery on Etsy to be more meaningful. Even though he is oceans away, reading the same book at the same time makes me feel close to him.