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A military spouse wears many hats

Military spouse, mom, doctor ??" one woman does it all

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Military spouses are notorious jugglers. Whether their Servicemember is home or deployed, an Army, Air Force, Navy or Marine spouse is adept at handling the house, the kids, the FRG, a job and, well, life.

Tianna Eitner, 40, is definitely one of those spouses. 

"You need to find a balanced life," she said. "Both inside and outside of the military."

Eitner has been married for 14 years to Cmdr. Keith Eitner, the commanding officer of the Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 129 Squadron Augment Unit (SAU) at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. They have been stationed on Whidbey since 1995 and Cmdr. Eitner has been with the SAU since 2006, when he transitioned from active duty to the reserves.

"We met at the start of college, 23 years ago, and Keith was already in ROTC at that point," Eitner said. "I have always known him as being in the military."

By that same token, her husband has always known that she was going to be a doctor. When she was just a senior in high school, Eitner was accepted into a special six-year program, which combines undergraduate studies at Penn State with medical studies at the College of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. In 1995, she graduated with her M.D. and went onto Chicago, where she interned at Northwestern while Keith attended flight school training.

Currently, Eitner - though she practices under her maiden name as Dr. Tsitsis - is on staff at Skagit Valley Hospital as an internist. She works seven days on and seven days off at the hospital and feels that the shift work still allows her to spend lots of time with her four children, which includes a set of twin seven year-old boys, a four year-old daughter and a one year-old son.

"It's more challenging when he's gone, of course," said Eitner, referring to her husband's three deployments. "My in-laws relocated out here though so that is a huge help."

While active-duty orders come up periodically for Keith, and his time is often consumed with the role of commanding officer, he is looking into a new civilian career path and even considering starting law school or an MBA program.

At the end of the day, although she is balancing a successful medical career and a full family life, Eitner is grateful for her marriage and for what her husband volunteered to do over two decades ago.

"Always remember the reason why your husband does what he does - it's for our freedom," Eitner said. "Don't get mad at him for being late sometimes or for being deployed. They are doing it all for a greater good."

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