Your Son/Daughter is Going Where?? Round 2

I hear things like: "...goes where? is that the Navy, like ships?: ...so the Navy has a college; my friends son went there ... he's a Marine sergeant now; So he has to go in the real Navy afterwards?, really?... Do they get summers off?...So when he graduates ... doe he go to Boot Camp?...So they have to wear uniforms..."
 
charlestonmom5 said:
A few times, when I say that my son goes to the Air Force Academy, and I get confused stares, I have said “like West Point or the Naval Academy, but for the Air Force.” That seems to mean something, but they could just be faking.
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I have been surprised through the years when I mention that our son went to West Point, and the other person asks, "so will he have to go in the military?"

It's like asking if the Yankees play baseball of if Ford makes cars. I just try to hide my laughter and roll with it.
 
DS is currently finishing up Beast at West Point. He asked his mother to get a WP t-shirt to give to the local UPS driver who would honk and wave and give a thumbs up when DS would be out on his training runs. DS wanted to thank the driver for the encouragement and to let the driver know that a motivation for DS’s service was to protect and defend folks like him.

His mother did as requested and flagged down the driver to give him the t-shirt and deliver the message. The driver was a little confused about what exactly USMA and WP is. His mother then remembered how DS had explained it to some of his friends and told the driver “You know the Army-Navy football game? Well he‘s Army”. That worked and the driver left with a smile.
 
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THParent said:
Personally, I guffawed when I saw this the first time. ;)

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well, that is the other side of the coin. As we all know, there are people who don't know what the academies are and how hard it is to get in, but I am sure there are plenty of parents who will tell them and of course, brag about their son or daughter
 
The skeevy guy with the open shirt just wanting to know if she's single, is the best part. He's like a coyote with his paw caught in a trap. Now, do I gnaw my foot off to get out of this, or do I just give up and die?
 
THParent said:
The skeevy guy with the open shirt just wanting to know if she's single, is the best part. He's like a coyote with his paw caught in a trap. Now, do I gnaw my foot off to get out of this, or do I just give up and die?
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He said, somebody just shoot me.
 
That video sounds exactly like the one and only West Point Parents Club meeting we attended, only the room was filled with that woman. We couldn’t leave fast enough.
 
DS is a 2/C mid, and I just went to a party with some closer friends who I thought "got it." We had had several conversations when DS was first offered appointment. But then at party was inundated with the "Has DS finished training and deployed yet?" Uhm... SMH Maybe it was the summer training pics (of DS at sub base, e.g.) that confused them again. 🤷‍♀️ "Is he in the military or in college?" YES! (Much like SNL's Shimmer, it's a floor wax AND a dessert topping!)
 
We had a round of this with three plebes at the dinner table post-game last night (10 lbs slow-braised brisket for 5 people with very little leftover, garlic bread, raw veg, bacon ranch dip, the usual 5 kinds of ice cream). Hilarious.
Plebe 1: My HS friends now at civilian colleges are surprised I am taking college courses.
Plebe 2: My ex-BF told everyone I was too stupid to get in any college. (Immediate and universal assurance she was well rid of him.)
Plebe 3: “So, can you put on regular clothes after your military classes?” (the favorite)
 
This whole discussion is no less tiresome than it's been for the past how many years.

Is it really so hard to just smile and walk away? Why not just explain the difference between the tracks of an officer vs an enlisted man or woman. If you're unfamiliar then familiarized yourself. Think for one second how this discussion would look from the outside.

I have clients, farmers and ranchers, who would be uniformly considered dumb rednecks by the looks of them in their work day clothes. Trust me. they aren't dumb and they don't care what other people think.
 
cb7893 said:
Is it really so hard to just smile and walk away? Why not just explain the difference between the tracks of an officer vs an enlisted man or woman.
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I agree. At one time, I was one of those parents who’d roll their eyes and sigh when faced with unknowing comments and questions. I’d respond with a kind of tired tone, smacking of “I can’t believe you don’t know this.” Dig deep enough here and you’ll surely find something I wrote with exactly that attitude.

I’ve since come around. I now accept that we’re a country in which an embarrassingly low percentage of its people serve, have served or will serve in the military. That’s something only the government — or a war — can do anything about. Do I wish our citizens and residents knew and understood more? Of course. Do I wish they cared enough to understand what people — including my DD and DS — go through for the privilege and honor and burden of defending our country. Of course.

But they don’t. Even here, on SAF, there are many who admit to knowing very little despite their vested interest in the matter. So I’ve decided that I’m going try my best to patiently and thoughtfully educate them.

(I’ve said here before that I think some parents get annoyed when others are ignorant of the officer accession path because the parents are deprived of an “ooh-ah” moment — an opportunity for someone to pat them on the back and/or stroke their ego. Again, I say some parents, not all or even most.)

Yes, the comments posted here make for fun banter among us “insiders.” But in the end, those of us who are in the know should be the ones to educate others, without judgment or smugness. The better we do that, the better off everyone will be.
 
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