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Home » Categories » Government » Military / Armed Forces » My Son The Soldier » Printer Friendly
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Since he was 3 years old our oldest son Jeremy wearing his authentic mini military fatiques has talked about becoming a soldier. Fueled by the stories of experiences of a great grandfather, both grandfathers and an uncle he has looked forward with eager anticipation to the day and the place where he would wear the uniform of the United States Army. Through a recommendation from his uncle and encouragement from all, he enrolled in Norwich University in Vermont as a Norwich Cadet. As a freshman cadet in college he was also lured by the Vermont National Guard. He asked advice from his two grandfathers, the uncle and his mother and I and was told by all that he should wait and focus on his studies. In our minds we knew he would become a soldier, but in our hearts we hoped it would be after any chance of being deployed to Iraq . Well, after taking in all the sage advice he promptly ignored it and immediately joined the Green Mountain Guard.
The Army and the Army National Guard have a wide variety of “products" marketed as career paths that involves college tuition incentives. They also make sure the father of soldiers get some great t-shirts and coffee mugs. Our son chose a college first type program that allows him to stay in college and go to Basic Training at Fort Benning in Georgia . He must maintain a certain grade point average, and he officially becomes an enlisted soldier. He reminds us constantly that his great grandfather joined the Army as an enlisted man and eventually retired as a Colonel after earning a law degree.
That brings us to this week in June 2007. Our oldest son is currently at basic training. When we visited Fort Benning ’s Infantry Museum when Jeremy was a elementary aged boy, he refused to enter several rooms because of a child’s fear of mannequins. Now he is in the very infantry that is honored by the museum. He has written us 4 letters which when totaled with all the other letters he has ever written to us over the years totals.....4. He makes everything he does in the military sound like he is at a summer camp. He runs, exercises, practices with weapons, studies military tactics, and eats very quickly in a very regimented and managed day. He wrote us to say he is having a great time learning all he can about the military and has met some excellent people. His positive and optimistic focus is contagious. Duty, honor, and the camaraderie with those that train and sweat beside you is sometimes lost as we grow older and more callous to the world.
I find myself following the daily news reports from Iraq and Afghanistan more closely. I choke back waves of emotion when made aware of a young man or woman killed, imagining the loss that we would feel is our son, my son, became one of the casualties. Many of these young men and women were as optimistic and excited as Jeremy and yet life was taken too early to show its full potential. I shake my head in dismay when reading of protestors standing in the path of funeral processions who are trying to bury those who have died in the conflict. I am not against the right to protest, but there are venues that should be off limits. For some reason many have decided that protests and the right to speak ones mind can circumvent good taste and respect for others. As one Christian to others that call themselves such at the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas who protest at funerals of our soldiers because they feel the war dead are God’s punishment for homosexuality, your misguided idiocy needs to be reevaluated with prayer, and replacement of your current earth bound spiritual leadership. I am not sure which Bible you are using but you are apparently reading it upside down and backwards.
Jeremy will graduate from his training in late August and return as a sophomore to his cadet life and military aspirations. It is a life that can be less than appealing if one is easily troubled by the words of those that attack what soldiers work to protect. Right now the hope is that his confidence will not waver or become disheartened by the verbal abuse by those that have sharp criticisms directed toward the men and women that serve. Military health care problems, reports of defective and ineffective equipment, poor decisions by those in command, and verbal attacks on the leadership of our military are all things that surely weigh on the minds of our soldiers. For now, I, as the father of a soldier will maintain my love of country and buoyancy of belief upon the shoulders of my son the soldier.
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