Your Son/Daughter is Going Where?? Round 2

There is a special sub-category in this realm of comment.

Presumably, most often said to women veterans out of hearing of others, as I can attest to:
“Well, if the nurses had all looked like you, I would have joined up.” (Ugh.)
“I bet you enjoyed having all those men to pick from.” (Yes, of course, main reason I joined and stayed 26 years.)
“I would have served, but the services aren’t what they used to be with all the women and ‘others.’” (WTH?!)
“I didn’t serve because I would have been distracted by the women because I’d be worried about protecting them.” (Sigh.)

These kinds of comments are not as vintage as you might think, nor come out of the mouths of a certain generation. One of our plebe sponsor mids, who happened to be a male, earnestly asked me if I regretted not having focused on my primary God-given role as a a homemaker and being content in traditional roles in the family, and how my DH felt about it. I simply said “no” and reassured him God had a plan for me.

Human beings. Endlessly entertaining.
I would be naive to think this type of mindset didn't still exist, but it makes me mad. Hopefully, we have raised our son to not have this archean way of thinking. How you didn't pop any or all of those in the mouth is beyond me. You must have the patience of Job.
 
Assuming we will return to the main topic at some point, I have to chime in on NY. We have NH friends (think generations back) who have strong opinions on “the New York people from the northern part of the state who think they are New Englanders,” Massachusetts drivers, the odd Maine people, and, of course, “those people from Vermont who think they are better than us.”
As a "flatlander" and non-New Englander who grew up in the Mid-Atlantic and then at first went South, I used to mentally categorize Vermont and New Hampshire as one unit because after all, they were so small, so close and after all, they fit together. When I ended up living in Western Mass, I got more familiar with Vermont and started to see how very different the people there were it was from my neighbors even though we were geographically so close to them. Then, we moved to New Hampshire and I started to really appreciate the true sociological chasm that lies between those two states is HUGE and that does not seem to change very much. Massachusetts, (the real Massachusetts outside Rt128) Vermont and NH are hugely different from each other other than sharing a language and sports teams.
 
Haven’t gotten a lot of reaction to acceptance at USCGA yet but when my son brought up the idea of flying for the Navy in the seventh grade his geometry teacher asked him how he could sleep at night if he made that decision. I needless to say was furious with that comment from a teacher
 
Haven’t gotten a lot of reaction to acceptance at USCGA yet but when my son brought up the idea of flying for the Navy in the seventh grade his geometry teacher asked him how he could sleep at night if he made that decision. I needless to say was furious with that comment from a teacher
To be fair he won't be sleeping at night because he will be landing F-35s on the carrier during that time :cool:
 
Just to refresh this always-popular thread, I can relate a story demonstrating it still happens. Just before the pandemic, we went to a fund-raiser benefiting homeless military veterans. We were in casual conversation with some people in the bar line. The conversation got around to military service, school, etc. The man we were talking to commented he never understood why the Naval Academy was in Indianapolis, as there wasn’t a lot of water there except over near Chicago. DH assured him with a straight face that it had not been too much of a problem, the Navy figured out how to work around it.
 
Of course, this means I have to post this famous ad, as someone who lives in The Maryland.
 
Just to refresh this always-popular thread, I can relate a story demonstrating it still happens. Just before the pandemic, we went to a fund-raiser benefiting homeless military veterans. We were in casual conversation with some people in the bar line. The conversation got around to military service, school, etc. The man we were talking to commented he never understood why the Naval Academy was in Indianapolis, as there wasn’t a lot of water there except over near Chicago. DH assured him with a straight face that it had not been too much of a problem, the Navy figured out how to work around it.
I wonder if that guy was related to Charles Barkley? 😄

EDIT: posted before I saw your video post. Duhh.
 
Haven’t gotten a lot of reaction to acceptance at USCGA yet but when my son brought up the idea of flying for the Navy in the seventh grade his geometry teacher asked him how he could sleep at night if he made that decision. I needless to say was furious with that comment from a teacher
I know several people who shouldn’t be around kids.
 
Of course, this means I have to post this famous ad, as someone who lives in The Maryland.
YES makes me lol every time I see it 🤣 I enjoy All of those actors.
 
My coworkers are incredibly supportive of our family, they work at the high school our son attended and were all in his corner and still are. That being said, last week we were chatting about our recent hs grads and how they were wrapping up their first year in college.

Every jaw dropped when it was my turn (even knowing he is at N*ot college). It was last Thursday, and I had just gotten a text from him--he and a fellow shipmate had just been 'certified' to potentially survive a sudden immersion into debris and flame riddled water (ie, ejection from airframe or overboard on ship).

I had to grin. I loved that moment. College, N*ot college.
 
There is a special sub-category in this realm of comment.

Presumably, most often said to women veterans out of hearing of others, as I can attest to:
“Well, if the nurses had all looked like you, I would have joined up.” (Ugh.)
“I bet you enjoyed having all those men to pick from.” (Yes, of course, main reason I joined and stayed 26 years.)
“I would have served, but the services aren’t what they used to be with all the women and ‘others.’” (WTH?!)
“I didn’t serve because I would have been distracted by the women because I’d be worried about protecting them.” (Sigh.)

These kinds of comments are not as vintage as you might think, nor come out of the mouths of a certain generation. One of our plebe sponsor mids, who happened to be a male, earnestly asked me if I regretted not having focused on my primary God-given role as a a homemaker and being content in traditional roles in the family, and how my DH felt about it. I simply said “no” and reassured him God had a plan for me.

Human beings. Endlessly entertaining.
My DD is a Navy SWO. The entire family has been supportive of her (we are not a military family), but recently her uncle decided women are in the military only due to political correctness. (He is not a veteran).

To paraphrase Capt MJ: Human beings. Endlessly entertaining. But sometimes moronic.
 
My DD is a Navy SWO. The entire family has been supportive of her (we are not a military family), but recently her uncle decided women are in the military only due to political correctness. (He is not a veteran).

To paraphrase Capt MJ: Human beings. Endlessly entertaining. But sometimes moronic.
Please reassure Uncle there have been hundreds of thousands of women defending his right to free speech since early in the last century, and a few before that.

Here’s a good profile to ponder. The SEALs liked her, good enough for me. Her posthumous awards are just as respectable and well-earned as many others who served at the request of their country in combat zones far from home.
 
Please reassure Uncle there have been hundreds of thousands of women defending his right to free speech since early in the last century, and a few before that.

Here’s a good profile to ponder. The SEALs liked her, good enough for me. Her posthumous awards are just as respectable and well-earned as many others who served at the request of their country in combat zones far from home.
Yes, serving long before political correctness was a thing.

Senior Chief Kent was a true badass whose exploits if not true would be deemed too unbelievable for a novel.
 
Please reassure Uncle there have been hundreds of thousands of women defending his right to free speech since early in the last century, and a few before that.

Here’s a good profile to ponder. The SEALs liked her, good enough for me. Her posthumous awards are just as respectable and well-earned as many others who served at the request of their country in combat zones far from home.
This!!! ☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️
 
So now that DS is well into USNA PS, we are still getting questions like "how is boot camp?" and "what happens after boot camp?" and "wow free college-must be nice" and "what do you mean he does not have his phone??"
 
So now that DS is well into USNA PS, we are still getting questions like "how is boot camp?" and "what happens after boot camp?" and "wow free college-must be nice" and "what do you mean he does not have his phone??"
Well, it does look like boot camp, they are carrying those rifles everywhere. ;)
I am a '24 mom, and I still get weird questions. Last week someone said, "what do you mean he doesn't come home for the whole summer?" I explained things such as 2 voluntary summer school courses, PROTRAMID, various other training he would and could be assigned over the next 3 years. They just stared at me, really stunned. Their little darling comes home for mom to do their laundry every few weeks, and regularly can be seen in clubs (yucky Instagram pics) and brags about ditching class due to hangovers.

I just smiled, SA life isn't for everyone, that's for sure. But I am really glad I don't have the tuition bill she has with what appears to be a lackluster effort on the part of her darling kiddo.

If you really like the person, and they seem to be curious, it's fun to share the process with them and the storied history of service academies.

Good luck to your kiddo!
 
Last edited:
Back
Top