Once again, I get to put a very special sticker in the window of The Beast – I am now privileged to be able to say:
My Youngest son just called from Fort Benning, GA where he is starting his U.S. Army Basic Combat Training (he left this past Wednesday as Staff Sergeant Jackson picked him up to bring him to the Boston MEPS). We just got the call a couple of hours ago from him that he has arrived safely and is now in that blizzard of paperwork that all new recruits undergo during their orientation. Obviously, it was good to hear from him!
Emotional? Yes – as any Blue Star family can tell you. He has made the decision to put aside his present life and hopefully learn about a better one. Although he may, as the Eldest did, be in harm’s way, he has done this of his own free will as a volunteer; John Kerry can go stuff it (his infamous and outrageous statement about our troops here)!
The first time, I did the sticker for my Eldest son, the sticker was a bit different:
It was also a bit more wrenching for TMEW and me as I wrote about that event ("…at the end of the driveway…"), but not just for the reason of his leaving. And I will admit, even though he is now out of the Marines, he is proving that old adage "Once a Marine, always a Marine".
That said, where’s that bar of soap? (and Marine parents will understand that little joke).
