October 09, 2009 
By Paulette Woodall
There is an unspoken curse that military spouses don’t talk about. We are scared to mention it. It is taboo, but we all know about it and fear it and it happens in threes. It can happen in a row or it can surprise you and be broken down over a course of 6 months or a year. It is the Military Wives Deployment Curse: When everything seems to break or happen after your spouse leaves for deployment.
The curse only happens when the military serviceman is deployed. My friends and I have mentioned it to our husbands and their view point is 'things happen.' But then why do they only happen when our husbands are deployed? Usually we wait in silence wondering what the first event will be and when will it happen. It does not matter that my friends are stationed all over the world we email each other and make small talk avoiding the deployment curse question. We wonder which one of us will be hit first with it knowing it is coming and will happen soon.
Will it be the fridge again that happen to break down in the middle of the night after I went food shopping earlier in the day and spent $230 on food and did I mention the meat sale? Then to discover our floor is covered in defrosted freezer water and that the broken part is on back order.
Will it be the garage door again that somehow broke 2 days after you deployed last time or the washer that started leaking water only when I use it and never when the repairman is testing it. Of course I get all stressed out. What should I do get a new fridge? Should I just leave the meat in the snow? Thank goodness my neighbor let me store my meat in her freezer.
Oh and it will cost $100 to fix the garage door not as bad as I thought. Things are looking up!
So it seems I am the first one to get hit with the deployment curse and then slowly one by one I get emails from my friends from around the world telling me about what broke or got damaged at their place and so it begins. We laugh and exchange stories. It helps ease the stress of the deployments. With each deployment we learn and we grow. We become stronger and wiser. We know our husbands have future deployments waiting for them. So we wait wondering what the next deployment curse will bring. Will it be the fence blowing over in the rare wind storm or the computer completely breaking down or the microwave that stopped working.
Oh wait that was from the previous deployment from the time before.
All I know is that it makes life interesting and keeps me connected with my friends though we have all moved on to new locations. So if you are a spouse new to deployment and it seems everything is breaking in your house. Remember: it happens in threes and you are not alone.