Today I was told there is a newer version of a form than the one I had found when gathering all the documents for immigration. It’s called the DD 1278, and it’s a form certifying that a legal alien is accompanying their military spouse overseas which serves to waive the requisite amount of time they must live in the U.S..

The form that I was using is dated May 2000. It’s a very short form that has only two paragraphs: one for spouses and one for adopted children. The paragraph about spouses reads:

“____________________, who is the dependent spouse of the above named sponsor has been authorized to accompany or join the sponsor overseas on or about ________________ and will reside with the sponsor while abroad.”

However, there’s a new form DD 1278. This one was revised in February 2006. I reviewed it and my jaw dropped and I sat there in disbelief as I read it:

“Mrs. ___________________________ who is the dependent wife of the above named individual has been authorized to accompany or join him overseas on or about _______________________ and will reside with him while abroad. ”

It is unrevisable in its format. There is no option to change the wording of the document. There is no alternate word to line out, like “Mr./Mrs.” or “the dependent wife/husband” or “join him/her”.

For the last 8 years that I have been married, nearly every conversation that’s been had about being married has included “Your husband is active duty, too, right?” or something along those lines. Is it really such a new concept that women serve their country, too? I’ve known more and more women who were the only person in their family on active duty - in fact, 6 women of the women that have worked in my office over the last few years have all been the only one on active duty. And if you’re looking for statistics, that’s 100% of the women - there has not been one woman in my office for the last at least 3 years that wasn’t the sole active duty member in their family.

In this day and age, I find it appalling that someone in our government would be so blatantly ignorant and would change a pre-existing document to read this way.

I wish I knew how to get it changed. I wish I could write a letter to someone, but unfortunately, I know that if I do, it’ll be lost among the shuffle and thrown into a pile and most likely never read, never responded to, or certainly never acted upon. But damn, does it piss me off.