I need some advice from any wives or operators with families. I just got married and the my beautiful wife is pregnant (amazing). I've had a passion to go out for CRO for a long time now, but I'm putting this into question because my first responsibility is to my family. Is it realistic that in the future I could be a husband/father and pursue this careerfield? Does being a good husband/father mean you cannot be a CRO or STO? What about going ANG or Reserves? Sitting behind this desk is killing me...help.

If your wife is looking to have answers from wives, tell her to go to soloops.com I am not sure if there are any CRO/STO wives there, but, there are a few PJ wives. Sorry I cannot help you more, I am waiting for my husband to leave for BMT in March.

If being a CRO/PJ or CCT/STO precluded one from being a good father and husband than the Career Fields would already have ceased to exist. Now, do the training pipeline, TDYs, Deployments and alerts make it tougher on you and your family? Yes. These are not jobs, they are lifestyles. They take a lot of your time and effort. Your co-workers become family. You love to come to work. You love to train. You love to go TDY. You love to Operate. AND you love your family. You love to watch your wife as she sleeps. You love to come home to someone who loves and understands you. You love to talk into the wee hours of the morning or spend a week end away from everyone and everything. After a while you love just going shopping for food or driving down the street or sitting in comfortable silence.
YOU just have to learn to balance it all and go with the flow. Your FAMILY has to learn the same. It isn't easy and it's not for everyone. It takes a strong will on everyones part and open communications. It can be done and it is all the time. It just takes a lot of work and a special family. MC