While McCammon said she is managing her expectations, military spouse Tracy Sahleen said she is nervous. Sahleen’s husband is a senior airman stationed at Hill Air Force base in Utah.
“It’s a very basic fear that I think is ingrained in all wives,” Sahleen said. “If our husbands deploy, there is a higher risk of losing them.”
Sahleen said her fear is based on the belief that Mattis will take action to defeat ISIS and other threats around the world. Although she is nervous, she supports her husband’s duty in the military and believes Mattis will get the job done. She said there was a growing frustration in the community with the “lack of action” while President Obama was in office.
She added she believes with Mattis in charge, military members and their families will get more respect from the White House. That’s a sentiment McCammon agreed with when it comes to Republican administrations as a whole.
“As a military person, we do a little better with a Republican president,” McCammon said. “We make a little more money and have a little more support.”
She said her husband feels more reassured, as well, that with Mattis in charge of defense, the military will have a better call to action for defeating threats across the globe. She believes Mattis is someone President Trump will listen to when Mattis briefs the administration on the shortfalls in the military and how to fix them.
Plenzler said he personally has no doubts about Mattis and the job he’ll do as secretary.
“I agree with his appointment, not that it really matters what I think,” Plenzler said. “I have a level of comfort with it because I know who he is as a person.”
Plenzler acknowledged the fear that some military spouses have about sending their loved ones to war.
“There’s always that possibility,” he said. “And everyone who serves and is married to a service member know that’s a potential part of the job. I think Gen. Mattis won’t be someone who is hotheaded and won’t rush into combat operations as his first default setting. He prefers deterrence to combat operations – as much as you can get that done on a strong show of force. I think he’ll be very thoughtful before making those kinds of decisions or recommendations.”
Elizabeth Peace is a journalist, child advocate and former airman now married to a U.S. Marine.
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