Living Off-Base Can be Scary

I recently read an article that talked about the lack of community in today’s society and neighborhoods. The article stated that”Americans have become increasingly isolated from one another — too busy doing their own things to join service organizations or know the names of the people who live on either side of them.”

This is the reason why I am scared to live off base when we move this summer to Oklahoma. We only lived off base once in my husband’s Air Force career and then we had really good friends at church as our  social network. But normally, what the quote says is true of living in the “outside world.” On a military base, people are usually in the same circumstances and very quick to meet any new neighbors moving in and welcome them to the base and the neighborhood. On our street, we hold monthly gathering. We also congregate in driveways while the children play. We go to the officer’s club and the chapel; we volunteer at the Thrift Shop, medical clinic and Airmen and Family Readiness Center. We meet the people we live and work with. When I lived off-base before, we knew the names of our neighbors well enough to wave to them and say, “hello” but not much of their personal life, except for the other military family in the neighborhood.

Because we move so often,  military people learn to make friends fast and easily. Find someone with common interests — at a club, chapel, volunteer place — and move on from there. Friends are made fast, but kept for a lifetime. In the other world, my daughter is lucky if she even knows who else lives in her apartment building.

I’m not really worried about my family making friends. As the Wing Chaplain, we will already have people at the chapel to help us get oriented with the area and we will make many friends from the chapel community. But I also don’t worry since we always make it our policy to know our neighbors — their names and phone numbers — and make casual conversation whenever we see them. We are not shy about knocking on doors and saying, “hi, I’m Vicki and I just moved in next door.” I’ve had the best training in the world — 17 years of military living!