I know this is more so a question for sandboxx employees but there isn’t a Reddit page for them. I’m just curious if anyone else has ever wondered this before. I’m not trying to put anything wild in my letters but just curious if they have ever seen anything wild or pay much attention to the pictures that stand out.

So for some context I’m 20F and my Fiance is 21M. We’ve been together for a little over a year and he was at bootcamp for our 1 year anniversary and graduated about a month ago at this point. He is currently in AIT and is about 20 minutes away from me. He proposed to me at his bct graduation and we were planning to get married in December, but both my mother and my sister dont approve. My mom actually started to cry when I told her.

My mom and sister both feel as though I haven’t actually lived a life yet and I am setting myself up for failure by marrying him. I am currently in college but I plan to switch to online and continue my degree while he is in the army. They both rag on me a-lot as I am a little childish. But the big problem is that they wont let me grow up. I am constantly being treated as a kid that has to ask permission before doing anything. She even told me that I was “sneaking around” because i didnt tell her right when he proposed.

We both still want to get married but we’ve decided to wait until after he graduates AIT ((probably in February)). If I’m honest I’m really not sure where to go from here. Neither of us have lived without our parents but he is way more independent than I am.

So the main question I really have is this: Do I have on rose colored glasses with wanting to marry him and to go with him to his first duty station?

Hey everyone,I’m currently navigating my first real experience with a communication blackout, and honestly, I just need a safe space to vent.

My boyfriend (M30) stationed in Okinawa, and I’m Taiwanese(F31) liveing in Taiwan.We’ve been together for about three weeks, and we just had our first amazing in-person date last weekend. and we share permanent locations via Find My,and I know that he's back to the barrack not at field right now.

So deep down, I know he is serious about us and i know he loves me very much, but the sudden shift in communication this week has sent my anxiety through the roof.

He texted me yesterday and said "i love you ,it was going to be a "late, late day" for work". Before he vanished yesterday, he explicitly promised, "I'll text you when I get home," but that text never came.

I managed to hold myself back from calling him. Before I headed into work today, I left him a sweet, supportive text telling him I love him, and tell him even a quick "gonna be busy for a few days" would be enough so I don’t overthink. But my iMessage is still sitting on "Delivered" till now.

How do you cope with the broken promises of "I'll text you when I get home" due to pure exhaustion?

Any kind words or advice from everyone would mean the world to me right now. Thank you. ❤️

It’s absurd that friends are not issued along with PCS orders. Thankfully military spouses are adaptable as hell, so we made a not-your-average (small, alt vibe) Discord to house the kind-hearted oddballs and find our friends

If you are:

[x] kind, drama-free
[x] a lil bit feral
[x] in search of other military-brand chaotic, seasoned spouses to befriend

Then you’re probably one of us. We lean 30s in age and maturity but still behave like 3 raccoons in an OPSEC blouse bc this life is wild and a sense of humor helps. Gamers, crafters, parents, and free thinkers are enthusiastically welcomed

Community is gated, LGBTQ+ safe, OPSEC is mandatory, and drama gets da boot

If all that sounds appealing, DM for an invite link to our Discord server

Hi everyone!! My husband was recently told he will be stationed in Germany at Base Grafenwoehr. I’m currently finishing up my nursing degree, and was wondering if anyone was knowledgeable about whether I’d be able to get a job on base over there or not?? I really hope so, but otherwise I’d start preparing to continue doing upper education online. Thanks in advance!

My boyfriend (25M) and I (22F) are long-distance. He’s stationed in Hawaii, while I’m in New England, so we have about a six-hour time difference.
We met on Hinge last summer while he was taking classes for a new position on his ship. For the first 3–4 months, we got to see each other almost daily, so adjusting to long distance was a big change.
Around this time last year, he was deployed while I was in college, and honestly, I found deployment surprisingly easy compared to our current situation. I had a routine: I went to school or work, lived my life, and wrote him an email at the end of the day. Since replies could take weeks or even months, I didn’t have any expectations for constant communication.
Now that he’s back above water, I thought being able to talk more regularly and in real time would make things easier, but I’ve found the opposite to be true. I usually talk to him around noon my time (6 a.m. his time) for about an hour before he goes about his day. Then I might not hear from him again until 9 p.m. my time, when he gets off work. We text on and off until I fall asleep, and then repeat the cycle the next day.
I think what makes this harder is that we can communicate more often, but it doesn’t necessarily feel like we’re spending quality time together. Sometimes it feels like I’m just waiting for the next time we can talk, whereas during deployment, I had a routine and could focus on my own life without those expectations.
Right now, I’m looking forward to our upcoming trips. I’ll be meeting his mom for the first time at Thanksgiving in November, and we’re hoping to go to Japan together for Christmas, depending on whether his command approves international travel. Hopefully, he’ll also be stationed at a base about an hour away from me sometime next summer.
Has anyone else experienced this? Did you ever find that deployment was easier than the period afterward, when you could communicate more often but still struggled to feel connected? I feel a little bad saying this because I know deployment is difficult for so many military SOs, but I’m curious if anyone else can relate.

I had another post on here about how it happened to me. He cheated. But more than that he neglected to tell me about a career opportunity he applied to while at a 2 month training on the other side of the US. The one time drunk blow job cheating is horrible yes, but it seems like more of a symptom of everything else he had going on in his head. Recent loss, commitment issues, apparently avoidance communication issues. When he told me, over FaceTime, about a month into him being gone, we talked for a while. He basically said that he made the decision about the job offer, decided that the relationship wouldn’t work, and so why not get a blowjob. Horrible, horrible behavior, literally no issues in the past, none. Completely pulled my world out from under me. I moved out. We discussed possible reconciling. I was like you can do all of these things that I would need you to do and I still might say no. At this point he’s all “idk if I even want to job anymore. Idk why I always ruin good things. Why would I ruin a stable relationship”. Also at the time, we said when he comes back, we’d have a conversation in person.
Well he comes back tomorrow night. I’m going to be working and then gone over the weekend. But I’m trying to decide if I want an in person conversation still. I think do, but I’m not sure what I want out of it. I want to see his remorse? I want him to see in person the person he betrayed? The person he spent 2 years building a life and relationship with. It’d be amazing to see him beg for forgiveness. But it’d also really hurt to hear him say anything negative about the relationship probably. But maybe it would bring more closure?
Has anyone had an over the phone break up and then still saw each other in person? Or not seen each other and person and you wish you did? Or glad you didn’t?
Me 26F. Him 27M
I should add that we’ve been through other long distance things and a 6 month deployment. And discussed possibly moving places in the future.

I'm not sure who have been here. I was with my army vet boyfriend for a few months. The ptsd was up and down. This last time he decided to leave right before I was able yo tell him I was pregnant.

I'm just unsure how to process this or how to move forward.

Hey all, I was wondering if anyone could post their experiences with breaking up for a deployment and then reconciling afterwards? My partner and I were only together two months before he left for a potentially 11 month long deployment. We made the difficult decision to break up, but I’m hopeful that we can reconcile upon his return. My friends and family have brought up concerns related to him changing a lot from the experience and not being the same person. They’ve also brought up that I shouldn’t wait around, or hold onto hope. Additionally, I’m wondering about the on again, off again relationship dynamics being difficult to navigate.

Hello, military spouse community. I am a reporter with USNI News, and I wanted to share my information in case any Navy and Marine Corps families ever want to talk. (USNI focuses on Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, but I’m happy to connect families in the other branches with reporters as well.)

I can always be reached by email at hmongilio@usni.org or on Signal at HMongilio.52.

Right now, I’m particularly interested in talking to families that are having to evacuate from Middle East facilities. Please feel free to reach out when it is safe.

Happy to answer any questions about USNI News.

Hi everyone! My fiancé is currently in tech school, and we’re planning to get married at the courthouse during his RAP in December.
I’m trying to understand how everything works after we get married, especially since his PCS orders were created before our wedding.
I have a few questions:
After we get married, how do we update DEERS and get my dependent ID?
Since his PCS orders were created before our marriage, how do we get them amended to include me?
Would he need to contact his current MPS, the MPS at his first duty station, or could we go to an MPS near us after we get married?
Can we start this process while he’s still on RAP, or would we have to wait until he gets to his first duty station?
How long does it usually take to update DEERS and receive amended orders?
Once we get married, will I be able to move with him to his first duty station? If so, how soon could I move?
Would my move be covered by the military if his orders were amended after we got married, or would we have to pay for everything ourselves?
If we have to wait until he arrives at his first duty station to update his orders, how long could that process take before I can join him?
I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who got married during RAP or while their spouse was still in tech school. We’re trying to understand the timeline and what steps we need to take so we can be together at his first duty station as soon as possible.

Me(Trans FTM19) and my Navy boyfriend(M18) have been together for over a year. We met each other when we were in middle school and started dating around the ending of our junior year in high school. After graduation around July he went into bootcamp and graduated and now currently in sub school. I am currently attending community college.

Now here's the issue, my boyfriend states he'll be graduating from A school on February as an IT. He has the fear that he is losing time due to being possibly close to deployment.

He really wants to marry me before he gets deployed and pushes it on to me. He really wants to schedule a date of when we could get married as he prioritizes dates and schedules. I am extremely hesitant on marrying him for many reasons though.

I do not know how to drive yet which is a huge issues I am trying to work on currently and I do not have experience at all with moving outside of state as I lived and stayed in the same state for my entire life. I also have the fear of being alone for months without him in a house and a state I am nowhere familiar with. When I try to express this concern sometimes he dismisses it.

I was raised by my parents that college is a super important thing to do which is why I chose to do community college despite me not knowing what to do in my life. I am currently majoring in business to get an associates but unfortunately I do NOT want to major in business. I am only majoring in business because it was something both me and my parents can agree on that they are willing to fully support me since I can not do nursing, doctor, nor engineering. Community College right now is horribly stressing me out.

My household as well is quite toxic due to my father. There's also a lot of manipulation and verbal abuse always believes he's right because he has the "dad" role. He not only does this to me, but also does this to my mom. I am an only child so all of this is also targeted towards me most of the time. Constant yelling, getting insulted, etc. But at the same time my father is very helpful with my education and also teaches me housework and real life issues despite him being antsy all the time and can yell almost a lot. It's almost like an on and off switch and it gets horribly exhausting to the point I am burnt out.

However my boyfriend has flaws too. He has the tendency to break boundaries a lot or push to break boundaries to get in his way. He's a mama's boy and was always spoiled and never disciplined as a kid so it was really hard for me sometimes to tell him my issues without him dismissing it. He has a hard time understanding situations until he experiences it himself. As of currently he is doing his best to change his ways but he slips up a lot. I am doing my best to give him chances as I love him a lot and I believe people can change as long as there is effort no matter who they are.

He also has a history of cheating back in high school and because of that has cheating anxiety and has the habit of sometimes projecting himself onto me. Because I have many friends especially biological male friends and me being biologically female (I am transmasc), he freaks out and gets jealous and accuses me of cheating. Because of that, I fear that he'll make impulsive decisions as in the past when he accused me of cheating, he'd threaten to cheat on me. At the current moment though, he has been telling me he's trying to change and has actually shown improvement.

The reason why I am expressing these points is because I don't know if it's more worth it to just move in with my boyfriend and marry him or just stay home and finish my education. I am currently stuck and I am not so sure what to do at this point and it's making me worried about my future.

Edit: Another thing to mention, my boyfriend would compare us to other people who are married at our ages. He would say stuff like "this could be us" and wtvr

My husband left a few weeks ago now for BMT so I have not heard from him at all via call or message of a sort in two weeks and I’m handling it really well? I just wanted to share because I don’t really see people posting about feeling this way and kind of just wanted to see others thoughts or experiences.
I’m naturally a very anxious person so this is kind of weird to me that I actually am at peace. I really only have cried the day of and weekend of when I got that 72 hour phone call and heard his emotions. Otherwise I’ve kept myself busy-working full time at a job I enjoy, spending time with friends, doing my hobbies. I’ve been sleeping good at night, able to function just fine. I promise I love my husband and literally wish I could spend every minute together, but I’m not “falling apart” with him gone and am very trusting of the situation which is so weird.

I wonder part of it maybe is object permanence? He’s not here, I can’t see him, can’t talk to him, so I just don’t always think about it. But yet, it’s not that I’ve forgotten about him- I think about him every day. But that’s kind of why I wonder if it’ll actually be harder for me when he’s in tech school and CAN contact me, then I wonder if I’ll be more anxious knowing he can respond and talking to him everyday but still being just out of reach. Does that make sense? They say no news is good news so the fact I really don’t know anything about his day to day at BMT gives me trust that all is well and I just carry on. I think having the opportunity to talk to him would make me more anxious to miss him more because I have that inch.

It’s still only the first few weeks, so who knows, things could change, just thought I would share my positive experience so far!

Hello! If anyone could give me a peace of mind that would surely help. My partner left for Naval bootcamp at Great Lakes 10/1/26 and I received small forms of communication. The “I arrived” call and the ship/div text and the text that says hey pls send sugar free cough drops and deodorant. However, nothing more than that. I haven’t received a call or any letter in the mail from him and it’s going on three weeks. Now, I know I won’t get the call until Saturday of the third week so hopefully I get the call then, but when will I receive letters? Ive seen post from people on other Facebook groups who sailor left after mine, saying they already got their letters and phone calls. I know this is a loan process and I have to be patient, but seeing others get theirs so soon has me worried about him. So I guess my question is when will I receive or should expect to receive a letter from him?

my boyfriend is 18 and wants to join the coast guard, and i’m 19. we’ve been dating for 2 years and intend to get married, so i’m trying to understand what our future could look like if he joins. i fully support him and want him to pursue whatever career makes him happy, and i’d most likely do online college so i could move around with him wherever he gets stationed.
what should i realistically expect as the girlfriend or future wife of someone in the coast guard? how often would we get to see each other, and how hard is it to deal with deployments or being away from each other? if we get married, would i usually be able to move with him when he gets stationed, or would we sometimes have to live apart?
i’m also really worried about his safety. i know every job has risks, but how dangerous is the coast guard realistically? what are the chances of him being put in dangerous situations, and what do coast guards usually do day to day?
we’re serious about each other and want to build a future together, so i’d really appreciate honest advice from people who are currently in the coast guard or are married to someone who serves. what is military life actually like for a young couple, what are the hardest parts of the relationship, and what do you wish you knew before joining or getting married? i want to support him as much as possible, but i also want to know what we’d realistically be getting into.

Hi, I'm a mid-30s progressive/liberal woman living in a very liberal city in a very blue state. My long-term partner is currently deployed overseas. It's been a challenge to find other women in my shoes (or who were in the past) who share similar political beliefs. I recently started an online friendship with someone who turned out to be on the opposite end of that spectrum - once we discovered our opposing views, it was difficult to provide comfort to one another. Considering the intimate relationship between military life and politics, I feel like conversations around that topic are impossible to avoid (at least for me, in the friendship I'm looking for/offering).

Friendship would look like: a few texting conversations through the week just commiserating with each other about how much this sucks, maybe a video chat once a month, etc.

If I sound like a good fit for friendship, please message me! I've searched online for a group of this nature and about a year ago there was a thread on here that referenced a discord chat, but the link seems to be expired (if any of you have access to it, please invite me!!), and I haven't been able to find any other groups.

Thanks!

I’m an 18-year-old freshman in undergrad trying to map out my long-term future. My fiancé (19M) is currently in Marine Corps Combat Training (MCT), and we’re trying to figure out the best timeline for getting legally married and having children.

Being a doctor is my dream, and I can't imagine pursuing any other career path (nursing just isn't for me). However, I’m really anxious about how to balance this with starting a family. Ideally, I want the flexibility to step back or take time off when our future kids are young, while still having a path back to practicing medicine once they're older or when he's home from deployments.

On top of that, I’m feeling overwhelmed by the reality that we might be living apart for large stretches over the next 8+ years. The thought of my education and career creating distance between us scares me to death, and I already feel pressure about my timeline for having kids.

Has anyone navigated pre-med/med school and residency while attached to active-duty military? How did you handle long-distance, timing a family, and balancing a demanding medical career with family life? Any advice or realistic perspectives would be greatly appreciated!

My Gramps was a torp in WW2, anyone wanna help me on the pins

My wife has been sending me letters each day while in training and I usually get a couple each week in the mail. I’ve been send letters back however last Sunday she said she hasn’t received any yet. Do the DSs hold them for a certain amount of time. I believe she’s week 3 or 4. Ali had a 10 second conversation with her today due to them being in trouble and I didn’t get to ask her if she had received any letters yet or not. She’s B310 Platoon 1. Has anyone else got confirmation that their bravo 310 soldier has received mail??

I’ve been seeing someone who’s in the military. I’m very new and just unsure of the dynamic and I’m trying to learn and have patience. It’s been about 2 months, we’re not officially dating but we’re together. Anyways LOL … He’ll be going to the field for a week or two and I’m just curious what types of things everyone does during this time to stay sane!
I know he won’t be able to have his phone and I’m going to miss him! I want to make sure he feels supported and understood! But I’m also slowly dying inside at the thought of this.
Any and all help is appreciated!!

It makes it sound like he's dead he's just deployed he's gonna come back. I don't want that negative energy on me but I'm also not gonna tell someone not to tell me that because it's rude. Also super awkward when they thank me for his service or even worse thank me for what I'm doing. What I'm doing is sitting at home watching TV and going to work I'm not doing a goddamn thing. The whole thing makes me so uncomfortable I don't even bring it up unless I'm directly asked.

So my husband left for boot camp the October 1st, and he was able to call me the day he arrived at night time to the facilities, I suppose, but to my understanding he will be able to write letters. It’s been almost 20 days. and I still haven’t received anything. I know he’s OK, but I’m just a very attached wife, and I just miss him so very much, so just for the sake of my peace around what time should I be expecting the first letter? Because I’m checking my mailbox every single day and I think I’m going insane, the mailman already looked at me crazy 🥺🫠