So, I don't think I've mentioned this, but Tony joined the Army. He shipped out to Ft. Benning on August 8th for Basic. He will spend 9 weeks there, and then go to Ft. Gordon for his Advanced Individual Training (AIT), which will be 26 weeks. He enlisted as an InfoTech Specialist.
"Tis a terrible thing to love that which death can touch." "Godless" Please do thank Tony for his service to his country...from all of us. So our hearts are to be held ransom. Their war is to become our war. What is risked for our sake now must endanger our hearts. What is a father or mother to do. Take pride in the courage of your family. Take the knee that humbles us in our pride. Please let us remember "There is no sorrow heaven can not heal." You were returned to us.May your son follow in your foot steps. Oh what a wicked world we've made to endanger our children.
That remains to be seen, right now it's primarily for college (G.I. Bill). That being said, he may decide he likes it. At the very least, he will get exposure to other places and other people, in a relatively controlled environment (at least initially).
I'll be sure to send him your thoughts. His Mom is having a rough time with it. I've done everything I can to reassure her. With his particular MOS it is unlikely he will see combat. Reality, however, is that you are a soldier first and a tech specialist second, so anything may happen. Plus, he might do something stupid and volunteer for something more dangerous (rather like I did, actually )
As one who did not serve, perhaps for all of us who stayed home, My thanks is continuing and without end. I often think of what you and George did for us, I can never think how you might be re-payed. I fail and so remain always in your debt.
Daniel, a lot of people don't understand what I'm about to say. That's fine, they don't have to. It was my HONOR to serve.
And yet it falls to us, the recipients of your service, to remember: We did not go into danger but rather were shielded by those who took up the cause of our country. Who stood in the gap when our freedom was challenged. Those who looked beyond the comforts of home and hearth. All this was expected of the youth of our nation. But there were those who looked beyond our nation and saw people in trouble, oppressed and sorely abused. People who had no right to expect help from us. Yet there you were, tending to those most in need and defending their right to live past the conflicts that have so injured them. We all have ideals we cherish. Few are they who are willing to bleed for them. Even fewer those who would bleed for my ideals as well their own. All law is sustained by those who would sacrifice to see it's just fulfillment. Allow us to honor you, the sacrificial men and women who sustain our republic that we might someday live up to our ideals. Make no mistake it is by blood we have been sustained for our world knows no peace beyond inner peace. We wish for you that peace. We wish for you, all that you fought to give us. A homeland secure in a world filled with violence. If America is to know greatness in the years to come, it will be because sacrificial men and women gave us time in which to grow. For all these things and more we thank you for honoring us with your service. Now to create a nation worthy of such people!
Awesome! I pray that he will be safe and learn a lot. What this a decision he's been thinking about for a while or spur-of-the-moment?
He's been in JROTC at school for the last 4 years. When we started talking about what his goals were and what he thought he wanted to do long term, we had to face a couple of harsh realities: 1) As a result of me losing my job back in '08***, I no longer have the college fund that I had been working on for the kids. 2) After Kristin's unsuccessful foray into college life, I'm now stuck with paying off her student loans, and don't have the resources to take on more debt. This meant that he had to find some way to fund his college outside of me. I discouraged him from taking on a crushing amount of student debt, based on what I had seen with Kristin; college is just too damned expensive for what it provides. Note that I'm not saying there isn't value in going to college; I'm saying that the cost is currently disproportionate to the benefits, except in certain cases. Tony wants to get into astrophysics and computer programming. Astrophysics is a field for which a degree is a necessity. Unfortunately, reality is that if you want to compete in that field you really have to get an ivy league education, which a middle class American simply cannot afford. That really only leaves the military and the G.I. bill. The other portion of this decision is that it is my personal opinion that it is absolutely asinine to expect an 18-year-old to know what it is he wants to do with the rest of his life, to the tune of taking on anywhere from 80K to 500K in debt. How many of us knew what we wanted to do for a career at 18? Hell, I was 27 before I figured out I really wanted to be an engineer! The Army will give him the opportunity to get out in the world, try some new things, see different places, and get at least a sense of what's out there. He may end up changing his mind about what he wants to do. At the very least, he will come out with the G.I. bill and a different view of the world, and hopefully some personal connections that will help him later in life. I have tried my level best to teach him to be open minded, to respect others, and to be rational. Despite that, I know that my own biases have crept in. It's time for him to get out in the world and experience it without my filter and choose his own path. [Edit]***I lost my job in '10, not '08, sorry for the confusion.[edit]
Very nice Gizmo! You obviously have thought this through for a long time. Its crazy how the recession of 08 has effected everyone I meet. In person or online. I totally feel for ya man... I am so blessed to have my job in IT with Cirrus Logic. I don't desert the amazing benefits, relaxed workplace and driving 10 min to work. I don't desert the pay either cause I went to college for Art. When I was 18 I had no clue what I wanted to do. It took me several years and an introduction to computer building before I realized my technical skills. I thank God and my family for helping out with my college and room/board because after 4 years of University, I graduated with no loans. This is a truly HUGE blessing! I taught part-time at ITT-Tech for 4 years and have learned intimately what colleges are doing. I've kept in contact with a few of my students and they still having a hard time finding work in the tech field and yet they have huge loans to pay off. I've also known a few young men who went through the Military and came back with a great sense of honor and responsibility. I really respect them for serving our country and their willingness to risk their lives for freedom. So I will keep him in my prayers... if you don't mind of course.
I actually lost my job in '10, not '08. I've edited my post to correct that. For some reason I had '08 on the brain.
No problem. I've had 8 jobs since 2000 and another 3 dead-end-jobs that lasted less than a week. Thank God I've slowly earn more money each new job I was hired into. Now I make as much as when my wife and I both worked back in 2005
Unless one is blessed, as a few are, with almost a premonition concerning one's vocation, I can think of no course better than the one that leaves as many options as possible open to receive the maturing individual. Mostly youth does not know what to want. So many choices must be theirs. Your son seems to have achieved this. Men and women of the poorer classes (That's us":O} used to quite routinely sell themselves , or indenture themselves to a master tradesman or craftsmen. Working for free was seen as an offset to working with no experience or understanding. A system ripe for abuse but it allowed the unskilled a way up. As well as preserving those skills and passing them on to the next generation. Many an artist began apprenticed as a carpenter or stone mason. Their mastery of a trade or craft allowed them the freedom they craved to create, well, our world. So beginnings, even false starts are foundational. They provide the means to go forward. Youth is a data hunt! LOL Your suppose to find the data that you can emotionally relate to. As we all have come to know it helps enormously if the data can relate to us.":O} When youth are just starting out in life they are prone to making mistakes. For this reason they are often subject to much criticism.This is greatly eased with time if the youth can discipline his or her self. This requires a certain amount of taking oneself in hand and beginning to make demands upon oneself rather than relying on others. For all the military's obvious drawbacks it can greatly aid the only young in making the leap into full adulthood. What a time of life! We must act like adults in order to become adults so we can act like adults, this time for real, this time because we choose to. there's no greater uncertainty than having to become who we are, and are as yet, not. If the only young can maintain a positive attitude though all this there is a world that waits just for them. And they WILL have their say. And those who raised them will have to listen or be left behind. It's the human marathon. We race ahead faster than any one man can go, further than any one generation can travel. Strangely it matters little how fast or far we go...In the end all that matters is how we past that baton. Can the new build upon what they have been given by the old? Were they handed a lifetime of bigotry to untangle in their hearts? When we were great in there lives did we make them feel small? Did we teach forgiveness by forgiving them? Did they have the joy in us that we first knew in them? All questions answered as they the reach out in laughter to our extended hand. and take the baton that we helped to fashioned for them to forward into the next generation of our collective journey. Mankind is wandering without a goal though a long day and longer night. We know not why we journey, is it blindness or sight? And really all that can benefit us is how we pass that piece of wood. All our collective knowledge and wisdom, carved and pressed into it by the hands that carried it though a thousand generations seeking always the ten thousand questions. Each generation a new inscription that must make clear and forward our love to those who are leaving us behind. Should we not at lest tell them that we did not know? That we did not need to know in order to wander without a goal insight? All we needed to move the stone were our questions. That they are not the first to stumble upon their own ignorance. That to grow we all must recognize our own failings, that we might forgive them in others. As we learn of forgiveness, we grow. And finally, that we have the greatest confidence that you will improve upon us in all things.
Thank you George. I've done a bit of editing to hopefully draw a few things out and perhaps give them a bit more clarity.
