- Joined
- Apr 25, 2018
- Messages
- 5,544
I really shouldn't. I should just go walk Buster and stay out of this. This has me again pondering why I try to make a difference here.
My son didn't even get in any of the four academies who recruited him for football. He never heard from West Point. Jeff Monken and Coach Ken were low level assistants at Annapolis during this process. I don't remember the Army coach and it doesn't matter. I won't go into the royal treatment and 50 yard line tickets to home games at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium and all that that implies. Coach Johnson was building top 25 ranked teams and my son didn't make the slate. He jumped around five different colleges before graduating.
He was chasing the sports dream which finally ran out. He got his degree though and entered the Marine Corps via OCS. He's a product of a mid-ranked state school and Brown Field. He constantly pushes that fact in the face of those who have a more pure pedigree but still do not measure up, and that includes officers more senior to him. He wanted to drop out of college more than once and enlist, and I was ready to drive him to the recruiter's office. It wasn't supposed to be that way. He was destined for greatness from early childhood. High school: captain of the football team, he still is the single season homerun king, was voted to be "America's Next Top Model" in those goofy end of year high school surveys for the year book. Remember that TV show? My wife and I were USN enlisted and she jacked him up and said, "No, finish college and then join as an officer if you still want to be in the military."
She got both our attention and I stood down and my son got his degree. He will put on major this year and is awaiting results of an education board to tell him where he will go for his first masters degree. That is not so special because all career Marines do that. What is special about my son is that he also wanted to quit like your son, but he had somebody tell him to suck it up and plow through. It wasn't me but my wife, his mom, who is the strongest person I know, and we both knew not to argue. The really special thing about him is he is considered the top Marine officer in his MOS, a real life rock star. He is on speed dial for three of the top generals in the Marine Corps. He has a "MOM" tattoo. He calls us every weekend unless he is too far from the flag pole. Speaking of, we only have seen him once and maybe twice a year for nine years. This is not a game your son signed up for so if after a just few days of misery he wants to come home, maybe you should let him.
My son didn't even get in. Geez, what an honor and privilege to take up that spot in one of the most elite schools in the world. Tell your son to suck it up or get his aZZ home and get a job. Those were the options my son had and he was scared straight into the badassery of the Marine Corps. Scared by his mom, the most badazz of all of us.
My son didn't even get in any of the four academies who recruited him for football. He never heard from West Point. Jeff Monken and Coach Ken were low level assistants at Annapolis during this process. I don't remember the Army coach and it doesn't matter. I won't go into the royal treatment and 50 yard line tickets to home games at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium and all that that implies. Coach Johnson was building top 25 ranked teams and my son didn't make the slate. He jumped around five different colleges before graduating.
He was chasing the sports dream which finally ran out. He got his degree though and entered the Marine Corps via OCS. He's a product of a mid-ranked state school and Brown Field. He constantly pushes that fact in the face of those who have a more pure pedigree but still do not measure up, and that includes officers more senior to him. He wanted to drop out of college more than once and enlist, and I was ready to drive him to the recruiter's office. It wasn't supposed to be that way. He was destined for greatness from early childhood. High school: captain of the football team, he still is the single season homerun king, was voted to be "America's Next Top Model" in those goofy end of year high school surveys for the year book. Remember that TV show? My wife and I were USN enlisted and she jacked him up and said, "No, finish college and then join as an officer if you still want to be in the military."
She got both our attention and I stood down and my son got his degree. He will put on major this year and is awaiting results of an education board to tell him where he will go for his first masters degree. That is not so special because all career Marines do that. What is special about my son is that he also wanted to quit like your son, but he had somebody tell him to suck it up and plow through. It wasn't me but my wife, his mom, who is the strongest person I know, and we both knew not to argue. The really special thing about him is he is considered the top Marine officer in his MOS, a real life rock star. He is on speed dial for three of the top generals in the Marine Corps. He has a "MOM" tattoo. He calls us every weekend unless he is too far from the flag pole. Speaking of, we only have seen him once and maybe twice a year for nine years. This is not a game your son signed up for so if after a just few days of misery he wants to come home, maybe you should let him.
My son didn't even get in. Geez, what an honor and privilege to take up that spot in one of the most elite schools in the world. Tell your son to suck it up or get his aZZ home and get a job. Those were the options my son had and he was scared straight into the badassery of the Marine Corps. Scared by his mom, the most badazz of all of us.