Over the years, I have seen the military only showing recognition towards wives of soldiers. It feels like the military believes only wives are worthy of recognition. I am a girlfriend to a U.S. soldier, and I think it's completely unfair. In my eyes, a wife and a faithful girlfriend are both surviving the same situational circumstances, but the wives just get to reap the benefits with their soldier.

Girlfriends go through the same things as the wives. We wait to see them, sometimes really long periods of time. We wait in line after line to be able to see our men.

Whether I am a girlfriend or wife, I believe the military should take every soldiers relationship seriously.

When your soldier deploys, girlfriends won't be given any information related to his job. I know we can't know where they are, but it would be nice to be able to know where he's stationed at and that he's okay.

One of the worst parts is that if something happens to him you won't be the first person the military calls. I understand his intermediate family should probably be notified, but if you are very committed to your soldier then the military should inform all loved ones, including girlfriends.

Living on his post is not an option for girlfriends. Girlfriends have to live off post hopefully somewhere close by. Sometimes girlfriends like to live with their boyfriends, and if that was me having that off post rule would definitely bother me. If your soldier moves away because you have the girlfriend label on your back the military won't support your move.

Living this lifestyle is not easy, and I understand why the military can't treat girlfriends like wives. No one willingly would put up with this lifestyle if they didn't love the person that's in it. For someone to be just a girlfriend, we deal with so much that seems unbearable to outsiders.

I just believe that military girlfriends are more than just girlfriends. Girlfriends are basically wives without the label, but whether the military acknowledges us or not.