Army Perks

It's the season of thanks giving, so I will skip past my gripes about the army and instead share some of the great things about being a military family!



1.  4-day weekends-  This is probably the best perk, and we didn't even know about it until we were at our first duty station.  Once a month, (most) soldiers are given a 4-day weekend.  They usually coincide with whatever holiday is happening already that month, so the Thursday/Friday of Thanksgiving if this month's "four-day"  Or the weekend of Labor Day, MLK Day, 4th of July, etc.  It's a forced break in the regular schedule, it gives us a chance to travel if we want to (ie: see all of Europe), and it's a nice way for the Army to apologize for all the time soldiers are taken away from their families.

2. Veterans Day-  This didn't matter much for our first few years in the military, because we were stationed in a country with it's own army and it's own veterans day.  But being stateside, there are plenty of perks on November 11th to ID card holders.  Many restaurants offer a free meal to veterans, so this year we went to Dennys for breakfast.  Then we went to the Myrtle Beach Aquarium for $17, when normal tickets would have cost us around $60.  For lunch we stopped by Little Caesars because we were driving home, and then Hyrum went to get his haircut for free and happened to pass a place giving free oil changes.  We were glad to check that off our to-do list.  We ended the night with IHOP because Chilis was really crowded and I was done with people.  (IHOP was pleasantly close to empty!)

3.  Military Discount- Along with the Veterans Day freebies, many stores and attractions offer a year-round discount to military members (and usually their families.)  Lowes, Home Depot, Payless even.  It never hurts to ask and it's surprising to get that extra 10% off so often.  (This is new to us, because again: Germany.  But we're also adjusting to sales tax again, so 8% tax with a 10% discount is almost break even.)

3. Month of the Military Family- I didn't know that November held this title until a few weeks ago.  The local newspaper ran several things going on, including an on-post performance of the Nutcracker performed by the city's ballet company... and it was only $5 per family!  It wasn't the classiest set-up, but it was the Nutcracker, plus I didn't feel bad having my kids there whereas I normally wouldn't bring them to an expensive cultural event.  I think everyone there had kids under 10.  And, because it was so cheap, I didn't feel bad leaving after Act II when the kids were showing signs of being reeaallly tired.

4. On-post facilities- Here at Fort Jackson we have three gyms, a pool, a library, and other facilities that I'm probably unaware of.  They're all free.  (At least those ones are; some stuff you pay for, like the water park, bowling, etc.)   I love being able to work out at the gym with no membership fees or commitments.  This month (see number 3 above) the exercise classes are all free, but they also announced that starting in January the classes will permanently be free.  Awesome!

 I ought to book mark this page for the the next time that Hyrum is gone for the birth or second whole month of my childrens' lives.  It might help me see the silver lining.