Honestly the "He might be killed" is a pretty sound observation IMO. My sister-in-law teaches 'Radical Communist Feminism'---or something like that at Duke; she is my favorite relative. I expected an ear full when DD pulled the trigger on her appointment. My sister inlaw didn't try to make it an argument about the military, she just sad, "But she could be killed" that should give any parent pause to think.
The people I have a problem with are those that view the service and service academies with "generally ignorant contempt". "Why in the world would you send her there", (as if college choice were dictates of mom and dad). "She won't learn to think for herself"; She won't be able to explore and "invent herself". "She will be part of the Defense Industry". I give these folks a quick response, but there is so-much uniformed liberalism here in Seattle that there just isn't time to stop and make the case over and over and over and over.
For those friends who genuinely want to know rather than voice an opinion via a "question” ask, my favorite/strongest message is this:
I am a lawyer, my wife is a doctor. We both pretty much decided on our professions when we were 19-20 years old and spent the next 8-12 years chasing that choice down. Undergrad --LSAT--MEDCAT--Grad School--Bar Exam, Residency -Med Boards. Then the hustle to find that first job (which often determined where you'd live). We both came up for air as young adults in our late 20s-early 30s with our futures pretty much set on a path. We have a great life,----But I do wish that I'd given myself a little more time to "know myself" and "explore" before following the decisions of a 19year old. My DD is getting a premier education; she is learning things/skills/life lessons that go vastly beyond the classroom. She will have the opportunity to do things in her "first job" that her peers can't begin to imagine. We all know this stuff.
What tickles me most, what makes me really happy about her decision to attend the USAN is this. Whether she leaves or stays after her 5yrs, she will be 26. She will know what leadership looks like. She will know the world much better than I did at 19. MOST IMPORTANT, still young enough to run any "trap-line" she wants in life,
she will know herself and what she wants from life much much better than her mother or I did at 19. Then she can make those decisions!------------BTW, this is the same thing I told DD when she was struggling with her college options -----crap, I'm such a great Dad!!!............
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Now, what to do with that $280k that Yale wanted me to turn over for a @#$%*i^%,-- lame @&$ ---bachelors degree!!!?