Today's Officer - Winter 2007 - (Page 16) the extra work. Whenever I return home, I try to jump right back in and take over ‘my’ stuff again, but now she is used to doing those things. It’s always stressful.” But tough separations and reunions aside, Jennifer notes that because she also is in the military, she has a slight advantage over some nonmilitary spouses. Because many of the demands are the same, she says, the job itself doesn’t put any undue pressure on their relationship. OTS, the role of women in the military still was very much evolving, and she wasn’t sure what would be in store for her. “I never thought of it as a long-term career,” she admits. Nevertheless, in June 1967, she eagerly drove to Sheppard AFB, Texas, for her first tech school. There she met another young lieutenant, Bill Rankin, who lived in the same visiting officers’ quarters as she did. Immediately smitten, she remembers teasing him, because he was an Air Force Academy graduate, and “I understand when he has to leave, and I understand a lot of what he goes through, because I’m going through the same things, too. It’s like we work for the same company,” she explains. “Also, I don’t worry about him being over [in the Gulf ] as much — mostly because he’s on the water and not on land — but also because I was just over there myself, and I know what it’s like. Other wives don’t have that same perspective.” Because of the continuous possibility of redeployment and the couple’s desire to start adding to their family, Jennifer anticipates separating from the military soon. Carl, also looking for more time with his wife, plans to separate from the Navy after his next shore tour. Ultimately, they would like to settle down in Illinois to be closer to their families. “We just want to be together,” says Jennifer. “If we want to have kids someday, we definitely want someone to be home to raise them.” BI L L A ND KAR EN Brig. Gen. Karen Rankin, USAF-Ret., says she didn’t expect much of a career when she entered the Air Force in 1967. Though her father had been in the Air Force and she had gone through 16 TODAY’S OFFICER Winter 2007/08 describing him to her mother as “like [no one] I’ve ever dated before.” Apparently, Bill was equally charmed, because the two were engaged three weeks later. “I’d always wanted to meet a girl who was independent,” says Bill of their speedy courtship. “I felt like women who were military brats were more circumspect and knew what was going on — Karen fit all of these categories.” The two married in May 1968. Only a few years before, women who were married were expected to separate from the military, but the policy had changed recently, and Karen says she thought they were on the forefront of a new era. “I’m sure they still would have preferred [women to] leave after getting married — the Air Force is very tradition-[based] — and really, they didn’t want to deal with it,” she says, looking back. “But they knew times were changing, and it was the Vietnam era, and the Air Force needed people.” Because theirs was a new breed of military couple, Karen recalls not receiving a lot of support (or sympathy) at the time. Though they both were in the same service, getting joint assignments wasn’t as smooth as it is now, she says. She was a management analyst and Bill was a computer specialist, and when one of them transferred, the other had to make
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