Originally Posted by rickair7777

You won't have a choice in the matter, so it's not worth worrying about.

Harsh reality that you would do well to come to terms with: This is going to be hard on the girl. Dragging her along in GF status is going to be rough, for both of you. The good news is that if she puts up with that, she's probably OK wife material. The bad news is that anything but full understanding and total support is going to screw up your odds in training. Sounds like you're somewhat serious about this one. I would suggest...

1) If she's the one, get engaged then leave her home while you do training. That way you've put down your marker, she knows you're serious but she won't be a daily distraction to you. She'll be less lonely at home with family & friends than in a military town in BFE while you spend all your time training. If in the end it winds up being too hard for her, well you found out the cheap way, you can get store credit on that ring.

2) If you're not sure, break up with her. Let her know that it's for her own best interests and you're open to resuming things when you finish. If she waits around maybe she is a keeper.

Or if you're dead serious, and you're sure she is, marry her and leave her home until you get a feel for training. Bring her out if you think you both can manage.

Bottom line if she can't deal with some separation, she's probably a suitable military spouse (or airline spouse for that matter). Not talking out my butt here, BTDT (fortunately the one smart thing I did in my youth was to employ the engagement-ring-before-separation test...saved myself a lot of dough).