I want that for my kids
My oldest son is leaving for Navy boot camp three months from today. My second son is leaving for Marine Corps boot camp next summer after he graduates from high school. His final year started today. Also starting 12th grade today is my niece. I’ve had her since she was 12. She’s working on practice ASVABs so she can get the score she wants so she, too, can leave for the Navy.
About this point in the conversation, people start to wonder what kind of mother I am to encourage all of my children to enlist. Didn’t I want them to go to college? Don’t I worry they’ll be harmed? Brainwashed?
I go on: my 18 year old step son is desperate to get in. He got into some trouble when he was 13 and he can’t jump through enough hoops to get started with his future with the world’s greatest Navy. (Although, the world’s greatest Army is starting to look pretty good to him, too.) Our son-in-law is a Marine.
You homeschooled them, sent them to private school, moved into a school district you can’t afford only to send them off to war? What about their faith? What about the cause for Christ? What about COLLEGE?
Did I mention that I’d really like to see my brainiacsuperstudent apply for an NROTC scholarship? She plays hardcore rugby- the Naval Academy has a team. (Eye roll from said superstudent.)
I don’t want anything to happen to my children, obviously. I can’t promise that if they die or are maimed I can stand stoic and proclaim I would have done it all the same. But from this vantage point, the service can give them things that growing up in the information age never can. These are things I’ve tried to instill, but need time to develop. Backbone. Honor. Commitment.Courage.Appreciation for hard work. The Pride that comes from finishing something you never thought you could, or completing something after you’ve failed abysmally a half dozen times.
Nothing on this earth, not even growing up dirt poor in a house with ten siblings and a mom that should have been a drill sergeant, can instill in you that THING that makes you stand and face the tomorrows that come at you with a vengeance with a stability that you know you can take all-comers: nothing, but a little time given up in the service of your country.
I want that for my kids.
Category: Military issues
I’m a few years behind you with younger daughters, but have started looking at the same issues. Well stated.
All we can do as parents is support their decisions, and me for one, respect my kids choices. I have one at West Point and one in the National Guard. Please thank your sons and niece for me, they are true patriots!
Roger that, Boo. Well done.
Well said and well done, Boo! My son finishes his term with the Army on 1 October. He plans on going to college using his GI Bill. He’s starting 4 years behind his friends, but he won’t have the crushing debt load that they do when he graduates. He’s also got a CIB & Jump Wings, and experiences that set him as part of an exclusive fraternity. Your kids will also have that honor.
Please give my thanks to your kids for their choices, and my best wishes for success in their new lives.
It’s all true. My son was in the Army for five years, and at 31 is starting four-year college at Rutgers.
The thing is, you can’t protect them no matter where. My daughters could be hit by buses or mugged/murdered on the streets. The thing is HOW they live, not how long. God, duty, honor can be lived outside the military as well as in, and life can be taken just as easily sometimes.
Thank you for your family’s commitment and service.
Two of my four children entered the military following high school. My son served in the Navy on the USS Abraham Lincoln and is a plankholder. My daughter served in the Seabees in Iceland. They both put themselves through college after being honorably discharged from the service and both graduated with honors. They were far ahead of the kids that partied through college after high school. As parents, all we can do is guide our children through the years they are with us at home and hope that was enough once they leave. Each has to make their own life through the parents guidance and their own experience. The military matures them and teaches them discipline far beyond what they learn at home. It sounds like you did good by your children. They have learned their lessons well!!!
Way to go, Boo. I couldn’t have said it better…Speaking from that vantage point of being the kid…I wanted to serve after I saw what my friends “acquired.” discipline, Honor, courage, integrity, a home and the appreciation for teamwork and success.
Your kids are lucky…and I might just show this to my son…who is a great kid, but does not have a clue about what to do…
Go Navy!! Go Army, Go Marines, Go Air Force…it’s all One team, One fight!
My oldest son told us that he was enlisting in the Marines, about 2 months after he graduated from high school. I figured, OK, 4 years then on to college. Wrong!!!
22 years later, he’s still an active duty Marine, with GW1, Somalia, and two tours of Afghanistan in his background.
When you raise your children to think for themselves and make their own decisions they can do a pretty darn good job of making choices. Good Job Boo! You have done a wonderful job raising all of your “kids”. Be a very proud “Blue Star Mom” for all your kids and the new ones they will bring your way.
Proud of the whole bunch! Each is special in their own way. They’ve made good decisions.
The anonymous was me!
God love ya and those kids you mentored so wonderfully.
I have some experience with the boards for the Marine NROTC scholarship if your kids need some insight. Tell them they are my hero’s for joining up!! you gotta love these kids now days who have known nothing but war since they were 7 or 8 and still join up!!
S/F
Taco
http://www.thesandgram.com/2011/01/18/nrotc-marine-option-scholarships/
Thank You, TacoBell. I agree! I mean, back in 89 we hadn’t had a war in our memory. It’s a different world and some of these young kids (mine and others) are ready for it.
Amy