It's a great day!

kinnem

kinnem

Moderator
10-Year Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2010
Messages
15,992
You know it's going to be a good conversation when you call your son, ask how's he doing, and he says "I just had the best day of my life!". :biggrin: After a little banter of a father-son nature he told me his story.

As many of you know he is a freshman orientation leader this summer at the University of South Carolina. Today was transfer student day - just transfer students attending orientation. He evidently followed his usual routine of looking down the list of names of the students that were assigned to his small group that day, when he encountered a name he knew: Kyle Carpenter. He said to himself, no way! He got on google and did a search and sure enough the name matched who he was thinking of, a Medal of Honor nominee: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyle_Carpenter

When he met with the group, he visually confirmed it was Kyle and said to the young man in civvies, "Good morning, Corporal!". Kyle said "What did you say?". DS said "Good morning, Corporal". "How did you know that?" One thing led to another and Kyle guessed he was an NROTC MO midshipman. Evidently they got to have a long conversation at some point during the day and they plan on getting together again over the course of the summer. DS is/was sooo excited to meet him and to know they would be attending the same school. I can't think of a finer young man, a wounded warrior, for my son to know as an acquaintance and to hold in such high esteem.

Hope everyone else's day was just as good! :thumb:
 
Wow! What a great experience for that ROTC unit - and the campus - to have a young man like that studying there. I am confident he will be a positive influence on his fellow students, the ROTC unit and the cadre.

Thanks for sharing
 
kinnem said:
You know it's going to be a good conversation when you call your son, ask how's he doing, and he says "I just had the best day of my life!". :biggrin: After a little banter of a father-son nature he told me his story.

As many of you know he is a freshman orientation leader this summer at the University of South Carolina. Today was transfer student day - just transfer students attending orientation. He evidently followed his usual routine of looking down the list of names of the students that were assigned to his small group that day, when he encountered a name he knew: Kyle Carpenter. He said to himself, no way! He got on google and did a search and sure enough the name matched who he was thinking of, a Medal of Honor nominee: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyle_Carpenter

When he met with the group, he visually confirmed it was Kyle and said to the young man in civvies, "Good morning, Corporal!". Kyle said "What did you say?". DS said "Good morning, Corporal". "How did you know that?" One thing led to another and Kyle guessed he was an NROTC MO midshipman. Evidently they got to have a long conversation at some point during the day and they plan on getting together again over the course of the summer. DS is/was sooo excited to meet him and to know they would be attending the same school. I can't think of a finer young man, a wounded warrior, for my son to know as an acquaintance and to hold in such high esteem.

Hope everyone else's day was just as good! :thumb:
Click to expand...

Interesting that he focused in on Kyle Carpenter and went the distance to do the research. While it isn't exactly a common name combination, I'm sure there are a couple dozen people with that name in this country. Did he have advance notice that THE Kyle Carpenter would be coming to his school, or was this just investigating a dumb luck situation?

That being said, it was a bold move to call him out. Some folks like that prefer not to be recognized and I guess your son did it in a way that clearly was very positive. Good for him!

I can imagine that his new friend will be coming to speak to his unit in the fall...

Congrats to him!
 
goaliedad said:
Interesting that he focused in on Kyle Carpenter and went the distance to do the research. While it isn't exactly a common name combination, I'm sure there are a couple dozen people with that name in this country. Did he have advance notice that THE Kyle Carpenter would be coming to his school, or was this just investigating a dumb luck situation?

That being said, it was a bold move to call him out. Some folks like that prefer not to be recognized and I guess your son did it in a way that clearly was very positive. Good for him!

I can imagine that his new friend will be coming to speak to his unit in the fall...

Congrats to him!
Click to expand...

No. No notice. I think that sometime last year the SC Senate passed some resolution about him which got his name and story in the news (again?). I expect that's how my son first heard of him and is why he recognized the name. I also expect he got discussed in the unit a bit at that time. DS is pretty up to speed on MOH winners and nominees in the Corps. I think the research was just to confirm if he was remembering the name correctly. Once the visual confirmation was made he just rolled with it.
 
Wow! What an Honour it must be for USC to be hosting such an outstanding Marine for the next several years. Looks like the cadets and mids will surely be in for a surprise come fall.
 
Amazing story.

It is something he will carry with him forever.
 
Thanks for sharing the story and for reminding us of Kyle Carpenter's sacrifice.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top