I’m English and my husband is American. I met him because he was airforce and based at Mildenhall. Just curious as to whether this is something common or if it’s a rarer thing that happens occasionally
I’m English and my husband is American. I met him because he was airforce and based at Mildenhall. Just curious as to whether this is something common or if it’s a rarer thing that happens occasionally
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It happens occasionally. I wouldn’t say it is the norm
As a Veteran (Army);
It’s more common than the average American, but still not super common.
It’s common enough that it isn’t particularly strange. But it’s not the norm.
Very common to see Asian wives on Navy/USMC bases, was super common when we had bases on PI.
My dad was in the Army. I went to school with kids whose mom was Filipino or Korean. Fairly common.
After I got out of the Army I went back to Europe, at my own expense, to marry my girlfriend. I knew several others who did this, but it wasn’t super common.
It depends on what you mean by common. It happens often enough that people wouldn’t be surprised if it happened with any given person, but ultimately very few who are stationed abroad actually have foreign spouses.
Pretty common. More common back in the day when we had more o’seas bases.
As others have said, it’s not uncommon, but it’s not the norm. I knew several guys in my unit in Korea who had Filipina girlfriends that they married before coming back to the states. They were usually “Juicy Girls” who were victims of human trafficking and worked at bars, encouraging you to buy you and them drinks so they could spend time with you (their drinks contained little to know alcohol, and were 5 times the price of a drink for yourself).
I can’t recall any of my buddies who had spouses they met while stationed in Europe though.
My husband’s parents met when his dad was stationed in Germany and my Grammy is here because my grandpa was stationed in the Netherlands. I know a lot of families with similar situations but I think it’s just because they have a lot of friends that were in the same situation and not actually that common.
Not in the military, but my dad was – at Mildenhall in fact.
It’s extremely common but not the norm or majority. Knew plenty of classmates with a foreign spouse both there and at various other bases. Pretty sure ‘prime of their life military guy and single local woman’ is a fairly common pairing throughout history.
“Vietnam-era vet with an Asian wife” is, if maybe not rising to the level of a trope, definitely a recurring like, thing you’ll notice. Unless I’m completely misremembering, none other than Tiger Woods is a result of just such a pairing.
It’s not uncommon. Tends to happen where US forces have permanent party presence.
My parents met while they were both deployed. They have a friend who met his French wife while deployed. I’ve met a few spouses who immigrated with their military spouses back to the US.
Very common in Asia
I’d say it was more common a few decades ago; my dad was military and met my German mom in Germany, and growing up on bases there were quite a few foreign spouses. Not so much anymore, even when I was in the military almost 14 years ago.
In my units in the Air Force, it was quite uncommon. In fact, I can’t think of a single service-connected foreign-born spouse (the handful of foreign-born spouses were from college).
This is because I was a B-52 crewmember in the early ’90s, and the last time there were B-52 units based overseas in foreign countries was ’73 (at U-Tapao Air Base in Thailand).
Considering the number of US National team soccer players who are children of American military members stationed abroad, I’m inclined to say yes this is pretty common. Our national team has pretty consistently fielded players who grew up in Germany but were eligible for our team through one of their parents.
John Brooks, Fabian Johnson, and Jermaine Jones, all grew up in Germany as their father’s were stationed in Germany.
I was stationed in Iceland in the early 90s and I knew 1 guy who married an Icelandic woman. It was a mess and ended shortly after they returned from their honeymoon.
I was then stationed in Germany in the mid 90s and I knew several people who married German women. I think they are all divorced by now.
I’ve been in San Diego since the late 90s and know many guys with Filipina wives.
I did know one woman in Germay with an English husband. She was the one in the militrary.
I fell in love with a few women while in Europe, but knew a marriage wouldn’t work. Partly cuz there wasn’t enough time to build a relationship, and partly cuz I never expected to be able to afford to visit Europe once back stateside.
I lived in Germany and somehow wound up at Facebook with a whole raft of friends who were German spouses of American military. So it seems to me like it must happen a lot. The reason I was in Germany in fact was that I had a scholarship from German-American friendship club to study at a Germany university, and it was a big organization sponsoring hundreds of us every year. It had been started by military wives and local German wives after WWII.
Not quite the same but my Dad knows someone who converted to Islam while in I think Iraq (Not actually clear on the timeline, could have actually been Afghanistan? though it would have been early if so)
The more common stereotype is that they get married really early to a girl from their hometown, spend way to much on a car, then both of them cheat while the guy is out of the country.
Fairly common.
My uncle spent a couple decades in the Army. His first wife was Korean and his second wife is Filipino. First wife he met while in Korea. 2nd wife he met when she was working as a nurse in Saudi.
A family friend is a Marine and he met his Japanese wife while he was in Japan.
Other friends were Army and Air Force and they married American women.
During WWII the British men used to complain about the US servicemen saying:
They’re overpaid, oversexed, and over here.