Historically that makes sense
the Navy used to send ships on long deployments and often switched bases - almost all of their strength was at sea and many missions were well over six months or even years.
The RAF had a very very large tail, almost all of which was deployed around the same base for long periods. Very few missions lasted over 10 hours.
When you married a sailor (civil or military) you knew what you were getting into and loving care attention never came into it.