Waiting… and Then The Call

11:01am…

I watched my son recite the same words I have said on four occasions (three of which weren’t on the ground)…

I _ do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

4:53pm… I’m waiting.

Thanks to the inevitable Atlanta rush-hour traffic, I might have a few more hours before the phone call:

“This is Recruit (Last Name).

I have arrived safely at Parris Island.

Please do not send any food or bulky items to me in the mail.

I will contact you in 7 to 9 days by letter with my new address.

Thank you for your support.

Goodbye for now.”

It better come – I have a digital voice recorder all ready for the occasion.

The fact that I am awaiting is a point of pride and concern. Pride because our very odd village has produced such an exceptional young man with excellent debating skills, ideas, perspectives, and goals and what was once a wee kid is now charting his own important course. Concern due to my own understanding of geopolitical machinations, the deceptively significant piece on the board that is the very fickle public opinion, and the amazingly fast development of technologies and doctrines on the battlefield.

One of those we have controlled; the other is anyone’s guess.  

Over the last week, I have revisited one post in particular more than once – Hard Questions as a Vet and Parent from 2018:

“Would you support your child if they said they wanted a career in the military?”

A lot has changed in the six years since that post. What has not changed one iota is my closing stance:

I would rather him live a life of pride than fear, and if he has the fire burning in him to be a positive change for the better in uniform, how could I not support him?

6:25pm… Since I am still waiting…

Per the 2020 Decennial Census, the United States population estimate is 331,449,281.

According to DP03: SELECTED ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS, 1,347,885 are serving in the Armed Forces… .5% of the population.

Of that half of a fraction, he chose the smallest branch – the Marine Corps 174,577 at 8.4% of all Active Duty service… and barely half of a percentage of the total American population (0.052670803651554764%, if you are curious).

I find these numbers humbling – that he has chosen to truly be one of “the few, the proud.” In a way, it is also somewhat amusing in that he has historically done things the most difficult way possible to either prove that he can do it that way or just because.

[Shrug] Teenagers.

I am fairly certain he will read from the script as written and say “Recruit LASTNAME” while all acoustic hell continues in the background. Apparently, other recruits forgot any and all phone numbers… It happens.

I could go on as I stand by, but to do so could possibly jinx his journey. Suffice to say that I hope that his time – regardless of what goes on outside of Parris Island and his subsequent duty stations – finds lifelong friendships forged by that bond of duty, accompanying stories which often cannot be retold to those who wouldn’t “get it,” challenges conquered out of determination and spite, and the sense of accomplishment when he looks back and realizes that there were truly the few who could call themselves proud.

10:35pm… Still waiting.

My words from 1995 and captured in “Be… All You Can Be…” hold relevance today… though my son’s upbringing as been relatively much more stable than mine:

Dude. We’re 21, but we are not getting any younger. Matter of fact, there’s no guarantee that we’re going to live long enough to be old. If I stay here, I will probably spend the rest of my life drunk and wondering if I could have done something better with it. I have to get the hell out of here and try something… anything.

Similarly, the role models early on in my career proved that, to a certain extent, deliberate and opportunistic is beneficial:

…properly administered chaos, in small doses, can go a long way; at the same time, it gives one a chance to see what others will do with the challenges that come with it.

10:48pm… He’s outside of Beaufort, SC and about 20 minutes from the yellow footprints.

Who are the folks in his very close future who will shape him into a Marine and what MOS the Corps has in mind?

There will be plenty – some will teach him through their mistakes, while others will shape him based upon what he shows them… his effort, drive, and potential.

Who knows what the future holds for him?

Only he does – he just has to discover it with the tools we have given him.

Me? I have merely tried to be the best Dad he could have.

The rest is up to him.

11:39pm… Well, he remembered my phone number… so that’s a good start.

I’m going to go take a deep breath and have a bit of Scapa… He’ll understand… and we shall laugh about the recording soon enough.

…Very proud.