On a personal note, Debbie and I have moved into another phase in our lives. We have two boys, age 22 and 18. Our youngest has joined the Marines and is in boot camp right now. He’s very patriotic, very appreciative of the sacrifices of those before us that have kept this great nation safe.
Boot camp is a 13 week process. The first week is all about processing, which is a fancy word for forms, shots and quite simply even clothes. We weren’t quite ready for our youngest to leave, let alone for 13 weeks. We’re very proud of him and we know he’ll do fine. He was already physically preparing well in advance and was out running around with a backpack full of rocks. Needless to say he’s taking this seriously. I guess seriousness, intensity and passion run in the family.
As for us, we’re dealing with the big wait. We’ve gotten letters in the postal mail, the only form of communication at this phase in the process. Who would have thought we’d ever see a handwritten letter from one of our kids! Seems so old school and yet so priceless. The written word still has a different feel to it.
We also got to meet various friends of his going into the military. All I can say is that it’s a fine bunch of young men (we didn’t get to meet any women that had enlisted) that we got to meet and we ought to all be proud and thankful.
He signed on almost a year ago via a mechanism called DEP (Delayed Enlistment Program). As a result of that, a couple of great things happened:
He got his pick of what area to specialize in (also supported by his test scores)
He gets service credit for the time leading up to actual entry
He got his parents mentally prepared
DEP did require parental approval as he was a minor at the time. The military is really quite selective these days. Contrary to what you might be hearing, there is not a shortage of applicants and the military branches are selective. In the Marines, infrantry is really hard to get into these days.
Knowing his interests in our country and that we have never been there, we went to Washington DC this summer. It was a truly unique and overwhelming experience. We started with a DC based Segway tour to get a feel for the surroundings and did a whole lot of sightseeing. One of the special unexpected surprises that we’d highly recommend is the National Museum of the Marine Corps. It’s an amazing tribute to the U.S. Marines and it surpassed any expectations we had prior to seeing it. It’s near Quantico, VA and it’s a must see 120,000 square foot structure. More on that trip in a future article.