...........`ulp!`............dammit, something's got into my eye.........`(tries to swallow past this lump in the throat)`snif`:blink::crying::icon_redface:
Now my 20-year-old son, Chris, has enlisted in the Army.:flag: He leaves for boot camp on Sept. 10th......oddly enough, the same day as my daughter who's coming home from Iraq this summer and will be home for the week between the 4th and the 10th. I'm so proud of him I could just about bust!! He's been talking about it for months, but now he's actually signed on the dotted line and is now known as Private Christopher W. Lawrence:flag: He's going into the infantry, which of course will mean I'll get to sweat out yet another deployment to Iraq, or perhaps Afghanistan. But as l've learned from having my daughter over there for the past year, all a mother can do is pray, be supportive, and trust in God and her soldier's training to keep him or her safe.:yes:
Fort Benning !!! Benning School for Boys ..... he'll love it. Going in September is good, as he'll miss the worst of the heat, and then it can get damn cold in the field there in Winter. I did my Officer Basic Course at Benning from August to December of 1987.
That is where I did my Basic Training. I was Enlisted in the Infantry myself. I went in 1988 of September thru February of 1989. First for Basic and then for additional Advanced training in my field. I went in as a Boy and came out of Benning as a Man! So Lightning's Girl have Chris get used to the Georgia weather because it can get very in hospitable. I thank him for joining the ARMY. It is greatly appreciated. :flag:
I did "enlisted" basic at Fort Knox, prior to joining ROTC at Fresno State. Armor and Infantry ..... loved 'em both.
You Lightning's Girl are one excellent Mom right there. Excellent work LG. WOO HOO!!!!! :flag: :yes: :thumbup: :icon_toast:
Originally Posted by Lightning's Girl It's easy to see where your kids get their strength and selflessness from...from thinking of others first....it's a heckuva a mom price to pay yet there can't be any greater pride [FONT=Comic Sans MS,Sans-Serif][/FONT]
Aw, shucks you guys.........I'm blushing.:icon_redface: I'm not the brave one---my kids are the ones with the cojones. I admire them both for their courage and their willingness to do the hard things because they ARE hard. Me, I wimped out. I'd planned to join the Marines after high school; they wanted me so bad they could taste it---I'd scored something like a 99 on the ASVAB and finished the test in something like 45 minutes (it was supposed to take up to four hours, I think). I got cold feet on the morning I was supposed to enlist, and I never really thought about it again until I graduated from college 21 years later and realized that I could have RETIRED instead of starting from scratch at age 38.:no: But, the Lord has His way of doing things, and if I'd joined the Marines I wouldn't have met my husband, or had my kids and grandkids, or probably even gone to nursing school. I think it was meant to be this way, because I've never really regretted the road not taken. The only time I even think about it is when one of my soldiers does something I'm totally proud of......that's when I wish I were brave like them!:flag:
I don't know that there's a wrong reason to enlist. In my day, many guys were given the choice to enlist or go to jail; most of them turned out to be pretty good troops. The military offers tremendous incentives to enlist; Rexy's son is gonna have a great career as an ATC when he decides to leave the military. Thousands of dollars in educational monies are offered. Many immigrants have become US citizens after they enlisted. The military does have alot to offer kids, but at some point there's a price to pay, and most are willing to pay it, even with their lives. Not tryinta nitpick here, jes sayin.
What's the old saying about they who remain behind are also brave?? :icon_shrug: :icon_huh: My mom ( RIP Mama :icon_sad: ) had a terrible time of it while i was away fighting the yellow horde. She and my dad ( RIP Pop :icon_sad: ) took solace that there were 6 other Todd kids to raise, though mom never wavered in her support, sending several letters a week. She told me what hurt her most wasn't when I got shot up, but the awful things the press was saying, and the hateful things some of her friends were saying about us doing the fighting. She damn near came to blows with folks, insisting her son was not a baby killer or a rapist. Y'all parents of these brave kids are very special, and I tip my cap lift my glass of ice tea to alla y'all!! :yes:
I hear ya. Some merely enlist to get a job. Some enlist because they want to make a difference. LG's kids definitely fall into the latter. :yes:
Toby I have a very good friend that served in the Viet Nam War and we talk about it...He was 17 when he enlisted and by 18 has in a jungle..I have a hard enough time with my daughter..and she is on US soil.....I can't imagine what your parents went thru.. That was a very difficult war because people didn't blame the politicians or the war itself..they blamed the kids fighting it. They didn't come home as heroes. The whole thing still boggles my mind. I barely remember stars in peoples windows.....protests. So I thank you for serving maybe under the worst circumstances. You are one of my favorite parts of this board. LG~ there are different kinds of heroes....different ways to be brave. Being a Mom is the most important career choice out there....the responsibility of taking care of, nurturing another human being.....and I believe you are right...we end up on the paths we're on for reasons beyond our own limitations, understanding. I am leaving a week from this Tuesday for SA.....Gonna just drive...18 hours..was gonna fly but gonna have to rent a car anyway so why not skip the costs of the tickets for me and my son and just rent the car for two days..... So you guys may want to stay off the roads from the 22-25th LOL:lol:
Yeah leaving for San Antonio on July 22nd and gonna start home on the 27th. Open to idea..I think she can get off the base Thursday for a few hours..after graduation on Friday, most of Sat till 7pm and Sunday 9-6. I hear there is a natural waterpark around there somewhere? Thought that may be fun for them to just be kids again and relax. I'll shoot you a PM tomorrow...
Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels is probably what you are thinking of .... also, "tubing" down the Guadalupe River is good for a day of cooling off from the Texas heat.
Sorry for the confusion... I meant that LG's kids are enlisting because they want to make a difference. They don't view the military as just a "job" to do.
I dunno if you've ever been in the military, but at the time of enlistment, we all take the same oath; the most important words of that oath are "...to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic..." When I enlisted, I was very close to being drafted, and I wanted some say so of how I was gonna spend my 3 year enlistment. I had no idea that I would volunteer for Airborne and Special Forces training, and then volunteer for duty in Vietnam, and then I decided to make the military a career; jes kinda happened that way. Did I enlist for the wrong reason??
Nooooooo....not at all! My Dad was in a similar situation when he went to Korea, then Vietnam. I knew folks in HS who didn't want to get nagged by their parents about going to college or getting a job so they enlisted. Did their minimum time and left.
Like I said, we all took the same oath; IMHO, if they left the military under honorable circumstances, they served their country.
I know when i graduated BT the place everyone when too was river walk. That place is over taken by Grads almost every Fri. My family and i went to sea world (i know the best one is in SD) it had roller coasters. Trust me, whatever or wherever you decide to go will be 100 times better than what they went through these last couple of months. Just spending time with Family will make them extremely happy. It a tough basic training. One last hint....when you do the dorm tours, do not touch their 'Show locker' a lot of airman pride themselves on there inspection ready lockers. You will be impressed because they will be the neatest folded underwear you will ever see your kid make. My mom was impressed.
