Dear Mr. Smith...

OK, I have a HILARIOUS story for you all. This is a good "welcome to the military" story. I will tell it as well as I can without making it too long...

I went to Okinawa to take a class... it is a week long and the main place to stay was booked so before the class I emailed the school site director about other suggestions on where to stay if your on a tight budget and she emailed other OU students about it. This man... "Mr. Smith" (we will call him) emailed me back and he was super helpful and got me a room at the Gateway Inn on base. He is a senior chief in the Navy and works there and was able to pull some strings. I met him when I checked in and said thanks, but I wanted to send him an email and say thank you again because I am going back at the end of the month and will need help again getting a room.

Well, apparently I did not email the correct "Mr. Smith". Oops. I got an email back from a MRS. Smith and she was pretty clear about wanting to know who I was and why her husband was getting me a room at the Gateway Inn.... yikes, who the hell did I email? The thing is I got an email from a "Smith" about a new address and thought it was his... I don't know any other "Smith". So I sent it to the "new address".... bad idea

We literally emailed back and forth about 10-15 times to find if we were talking about the same man. The problem is I don't know this guy's first name... I met him when I checked in, but there are only last names on uniforms. I realize now that we corresponded through his work email and there is no reason that changes unless you change commands, so clearly I should have used the same email... hindsight...

It turns out her husband is white and the guy I met is black... THANK GOD, what an easy way to clarify. I told her that I am a happily married and very loyal wife and that regardless of whether we are talking about the same guy or not, THERE WAS NOTHING FRISKY GOING ON. SHEESH! In the end she apologized and said she is just a new military wife struggling with it all. Understandable to a certain degree, but CRAP! If she has that bad of trust issues she is going to shove her hubs right into cheating... Yes, the military is very well known for its cheating, but not everyone cheats and not everyone has trust issues. It is a bad assumption. So for those of you who fall into that ignorant category... I hope this story helps clarify and educate you that such ignorance and assumptions are not very useful.