True Life

Have you ever seen thae show on MTV called True Life? If not, it is a documentary that follows young men and women's lives that are unique or somehow different than that of the average person. Some examples might be, True Life: I'm an alcoholic, True Life: I'm a shopaholic or True Life: I have turrets.

My friend, Thomas, and I have decided that MTV should do a show on navy females living on aircraft carriers.

So, True Life: I'm a female servicemember in the Navy.

Note: This account is from personal and friend experience only. This does not, in any way, account for ALL navy females or ALL servicewomen in the military.

True Life: We shave our legs, maybe, ONCE a week. As Thomas and I are kicking back in the berthing, feet propped up in pink fuzzy zebra slippers, she replies, "I really need to shave my legs." We pause and look at the hair spiked up on her legs. "How many millimeters of hair do you think that is, Greene?" she asks. "I'd say your leg hair is like, a quarter of an inch or so." "Eh...I'll get on that this Friday," she replies. We wear coveralls everyday and paint the mags. Our division hasn't ordered us coats yet. Until they do, I'll continue to grow my leg hair out. After all, clearly, its extra insulation.

True Life: We only style our hair on the weekends. Everyday we wake up, put on coveralls or our N-dubs (blue camo uniform) and put our hair up in a military style bun. Many females use a sock to make the perfect bun; slicked back tightly and fastened closely to head. Lately, I've seen the sock bun in magazines and on fashion runways. I will never voluntarily wear my hair in a sock bun for everyday cuteness. I repeat. I will never decide to "fix my hair" in a stylish sock bun on a daily basis.

But, to get back to my point, after we get off work, we turn on the Ellen Degeneres show and slowly pull the motivation out of ourselves to get out of uniform and put on civvies (civilian attire).By getting dressed I mean, throwing our hair up in a pony tail and slipping into sweats, a hoodie and a pair of Chuck Taylor's. Note: we only have the motivation to get dressed on the commercials. We reserve Ellen, as a time to prop our feet up and laugh.

True Life: We only wear "real pants" on the weekends. On any given weekday, you can expect to see me in baggy men's sweatpants (or VS sweats) and a hoodie. I'm sorry if this makes me look sporty, unfeminine, or whatever. I have six pairs of sweat pants with me in Japan. You wanna know how many pairs of jeans I have? Three. And I only have three, because one pair was given to me. Basically, you're gonna have to love me in sweats or love me never at all. I go to the gym after working hours, study for my 3rd class exam, take a shower, chill at spectrum, and go to bed. So logically, it really makes zero sense to put real clothes on. So glad you understand.

True Life: We clean up good. I've previously mentioned that we put very little effort into ourselves on the weekdays. The weekends, however, are a completely different story. Women in uniform are women in uniform. Check us out when were out painting the town..you'd never know we serve our country. We look gorgeous. Friday afternoons, we doll up, curl or straighten hair, paint on red lips, and throw down.

True Life: Quite, simply, we miss our heels, clothes, and whole wardrobes back home. Many of you have full closets, dressers, mirrors, and shoe organizers on the backs of your doors. We have a coffin locker and one half size locker for everything. You must realize that half  of the space is reserved for uniform items. Before I left for the navy, I told my dad that I wasn't sure if my cowboy boots would fit. As I packed for Japan, I could see some of my tops and dressed dying to make the cut. Very few civilian clothes came with me. I did, however, find a place for my cowboy boots. Granted, the other three pairs had to stay but, hey, who's complaining? We are very resourceful getting dressed to go out at night. With three pairs of shoes and two jeans, I am very limited in my style category. On the plus side, similar to living in a sorority house, we share as much as we can.

True Life: Our feet stink. I'm not joking and I'm not embarrassed to admit it. They stink. You try walking up and down ladder wells and stairwells in steel-toed leather boots all day. We buy foot sprays and foot powders just as often as we do soap and deodorant. When we take our boots off at the end of the day, our feet are ugly, unmanicured and sweaty. Its just part of it. We knew what we were getting into before we joined. I have no complains. Simply stated: our feet stink.

Anyways, I think our state of thinking is skewed compared, to that of, normal women in the world. Daily tasks are so different for females living and working on an aircraft carrier. Hope this gives you guys some insight into how a few of us servicewomen live.

DG