full Army day

Yesterday was an interesting day. It was not good and it was not bad, just interesting. I seldom get angry, but that is how I started my day off. On the final day before our oldest son was to leave for South Korea with the Army, at 9am I was wondering why he was not home. The week since we brought him back from Ft. Jackson in Columbia, SC was not the best of weeks. When we arrived after lunch last Thursday, he was home only until the evening when he newly acquired "girlfriend" picked him up in front of our house. She did not come in but parked by the mailbox out of view of the front of the house and call him by cell phone to come out to leave. On Saturday he returned to our house for a little over an hour before he took off again with the same girl for East Carolina University (ECU), where she attends. He returned home on Tuesday afternoon and said a hand full of words all day long to his mother and only mumbled a couple of words to me that evening. He looked and acted exhausted. He packed all day Wednesday and on Thursday night left again with the same girl. We hardly saw him all week and when we did he was not happy at all. His siblings also wondered where he was as they wanted to see him. My wife drove all the way to pick him up on Friday night but he said he wanted to say longer. Last that night he called us to say he had a great meal with his girl friend and her parents, which was not what my wife wanted to hear. I don't know what we expected but it was not that kind of week with our son before he left for South Korea. So when he called at 9:30am yesterday wanting a ride because his friends would not bring him home, that did not make me feel all warm and fuzzy. When we reached the apartment where he was staying with his long time bud, I decided it was time to get angry, which is something I almost never do. Probably not the best time to do so, but I had to preach to him the importance of family over supposed "friends". Who is there for him when he needs help or money? Family not his friends. Who picks him up all of the time when he don't feel like it? Family not his friends. Who forgives him always? Family. After ranting for 30 minutes I have no idea if any of it sank in. What I really didn't like was that this was the same thing we had been doing for years with him and the change I thought I had seen when he first joined the Army was gone and he had reverted to bad habits in a moments notice. Am I perfect? No. Is my wife perfect? No. That had nothing to do with it.

By the time we got home I felt emotionally exhausted and we all let him pack and get ready instead of spending time with him. My wife did not tell him that her parents had canceled their trip to our house to take him out to eat the day before and had considered driving up yesterday. They were excited as he was being stationed in the country they spent 25 years of their life. At 1pm when he asked me to help him start and file his taxes, what did I do? Because he is part of our family, of course I helped him. We sat down and completed his taxes using TurboTax in around 1 and 1/2 hours. We left the house at 3pm with hugs from his siblings. He wanted one last Cook Out hamburger, so we stopped along the way. As we drove out of the parking lot, he looked in the bag and found they gave him a BLT instead. It is hard getting in and out of that location, but he drove around and went back into the slowest line - of course. It was 3:45pm and I was getting a bit worried about the flight which was to take off in our hour. Since it was Saturday I did not have to think about heavy traffic, so I drove as fast as I could and we parked in the nearly vacant lot to the new terminal at RDU. At 4pm we were at the ticket counter with a very helpful woman as there was no line at all. Since we were the parents of our military son, we got special passes to go through security to wait with him at the gate. After 20 minutes he boarded and we were off. It was more of a relief than a tear jerking affair, which is not the way we envisioned our parting. He was after all leaving to go to the place where his mother and my wife grew up her whole life. My wife stayed up late thinking he would call her from LA airport before taking off in Korean Air, but the call never came. I was just glad to go to bed as I was tired from our emotional day. It did not help that our youngest son woke me up at 3am, but that is a whole different story not worth talking about.

A.I.T.

A.I.T. stands for Advanced Individual Training. Our oldest son graduated from his heavy vehicle mechanic A.I.T. this morning. We once again read and heard about the Army Ethos:

    I will always place the mission first
    I will never accept defeat
    I will never quit
    I will never leave a fallen comrade

We watched this film on the Army Ethos.

I like these four values as I could apply them to work or our family. How about saying "I will always place my family first"? Or how about "I will never leave a fallen family member"? How about "I will always place others first before myself"? Wow, that sounds like a Bible verse. The more I hear about the Army values, I like them. Of course no one is perfect now are any of the graduates today able to achieve all of the Army creed, but it certainly is a worthy goal.

Maybe if they hear them enough they will believe them.
Does hearing them all of the time make them true?

Yet another day of driving four hours home so for me plenty of time to think about these things. Of course today was a whole lot better than yesterday when we parked on I-95 north of Fayetteville for around an hour and a half waiting for a wreck to be cleaned off the interstate. We actually turned off the vehicle as we were at a complete stand still for that long. After driving again we pulled off the road to got the Burger King and I took over driving and when I got back on I went the wrong direction, so we lost twenty miles going north instead of south. We finally arrived at 11pm and we were all tired. We got the graduation ceremonies early at 8am and true to the Army motto of "hurry up and wait", that is what we did for an hour. By the time we got into the chapel, we discovered the batteries were dead on our camera. Fortunately, the woman sitting next to us kindly took photos of Nathan for us and said she would send them to us.

Nathan @ AIT graduation

stationed in South Korea

We found out this morning that our oldest son will be stationed in north of Seoul, South Korea for his first year after his training completes in January, 2009. This is really interesting news since my wife grew up her whole life in South Korea! We would have never imagined that our son would go there to live. Here are some links to Dongducheon, South Korea for Camp Casey, where he will be living:



Map of Army bases in South Korea
Map of Army bases near Camp Casey
West map of Camp Casey
East map of Camp Casey
Bridge outside Camp Casey
Weather at Camp Caasey
Map of Dongducheon
Details on the area
Subway to Seoul

proud Army parents

It certainly was an emotional two days watching our boy become a man. Maybe he should have become a man sooner or learned lessons the easy way, but for now all we can say is that we are proud parents of our new man. Sometimes it is just too hard to put into words how we feel and this is just such a case. We told him how proud we were of him and he said that we were not as proud of him as he was of himself. He said he did things he never imagined he was capable of completing. His master drill sergeant told him they could quit any time and the final night before his graduation, he told them he was on a mission to make someone not graduate. One of the fellows completed his physical training on the morning of family day (our son told us this fellow's first two mile run on entering camp was in 29 minutes and he had to complete it in 16 minutes to graduate) and if he had not completed it he would have not graduated and would have had to tell his parents to not come. He did graduate by the way! There were people from all over the USA there to see this manly sons. I knew almost nothing about the military when we went to Columbia, SC this weekend. I dislike war and cannot imagine having to kill someone, but I have to say that having seen my son turn into a man was the highlight of my life as a father so far. I really like the Army values and creed as they are great values for anyone to have. The regiment commander read these out loud at the graduation ceremonies and all 460 of the graduates yelled the creed in unison at the end before parading off the field - also quite and emotional experience. Our son is part of the 165th infantry brigade, 3rd battalion, 34th infantry regiment, company "B". The regiment is called "Rock Force" and his company is called the "Hell Hounds".

Army Values

Loyalty - Bear true faith and allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, the Army, your unit, and other Soldiers
Duty - Fulfill your obligations
Respect - Treat people as they should be treated
Selfless Service - Put the welfare of the nation, the Army, and your subordinates before your own
Honor - Live up to all of the Army values
Integrity - Do what's right, legally and morally
Personal Courage - Face fear, danger, or adversity (Physical or Moral)

The Soldier's Creed

I am an American Soldier.
I am a Warrior and a member of a team.
I serve the people of the United States and live the Army Values.
I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.
I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough,
trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills.
I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself.
I am an expert and I am a professional.
I stand ready to deploy, engage and destroy the enemies of
the United States of America in close combat.
I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.

I am an American Soldier.

Army

So last night we left our home to spend the night in Columbia, SC so we could get up bright and early to attend the family day presentation at 9am this morning. We got there early to avoid the traffic, but just as we arrived at the Fort Jackson exit we could see a huge accident on the other side of the freeway. We found the Hilton field where the event started and I was not able to sit on the metal bleachers as they were so cold and I decided to stand. We got there at 8am as it was to begin at 9am. At 8:30 they announced that due to the accident they would start at 9:30 instead. At 9:30 they announced it would start at 10am and that there was a fatality and 6 cars involved in the accident. As the sun rose it did get warm enough to actually sit on the bench finally. After a couple of people spoke to open the festivities, we started clapping as we were prompted to do. There were around 15 colored smoke bombs set off in the woods across from the stands. Then all of the sudden all of the soldiers ran across the field into position on the field in front of the stands. We sat in front of the "B" company which was the platoon our son was a part of. It was pretty emotional for my wife and I so of course we had to cry, even though we could not even figure out which one was our son. We were all dismissed and allowed to go onto the field to find our son. Quite the emotional experience as it had been 10 weeks since he left the house a boy and today we saw a man in front of us!

Some of the things we heard from talking to him are:

• He craved M&Ms, ice cream and Starbucks coffee


• First cup of coffee was really special for him


• Listening to his iPod was the highlight of his day


• He bought a cross to wear


• Toughest thing for him was dealing with people - he hated every one in his platoon and it was mutual for everyone


• Second hardest thing was camping for seven days in cold


• Third hardest thing was crawling in huge field with 1000's of soldiers while live fire was being shot over his head


• Fourth hardest thing was having to go through gas mask tests


• Fifth hardest thing was to throw live grenades


• He appreciates the small things in life a whole lot more now

Some other interesting tidbits of his life over the past couple of months. Out of the 52 total people in his platoon, 12 are women. When he left our house he could not run 100 yards without getting winded and having to stop for breath as he smoked heavily for many years. For his physical training, he was able to run two miles in 13:40, which is totally amazing to me - I am not sure I could run two miles that fast! The longest march they did was 12 miles in 3 hours with 85 pound backpacks. Training constantly changes every time they do boot camp. Now the drill sargents are not allow to hit or touch new recruits and cannot get up into their face except for specific reasons. If you fight you get sent off the base for good. If you disobey orders three times for the same thing you go home. Of the 512 people who started only 460 finished and are graduating tomorrow. Our son is so glad he has completed the boot camp and admitted this evening that he is so much better off for doing so. He also told us he felt strange being among civilians, not marching in a line, and talking about common things.

news from the Army and the road

We received news from our oldest son from Ft. Jackson Army base yesterday. He is doing well, which is very encouraging for all of us. He says he is forced to wake up at 4am and goes to bed around 9pm each day. He actually gets off every Sunday, which is definitely surprising, but we don't know what that means exactly. He really looks forward to the evening meal as he says he likes the food a lot; also a bit shocking to me. He has learned to repel and use a gun so far. He likes learning new things and how you have to work as a team, giving him a sense of accomplishing something together. All in all this is great news.

We heard from next to oldest son last night as he made it to Nashville. I hope he doesn't want to stay and become a country singer! I remember stopping at the McDonald's next to the Grand Ole Opry on our trip back to NC, as it is quite hilly and nice in that part of Tennessee. His next stop should be on the western part of Arkansas in the Ozark Mountains. I don't ever remember going there, but I must have been there at least once.

he's off

On Monday after I got home from work, we did our usual episode of going to play tennis. After a few minutes a bunch of teenagers from the local high school came and played next to us. They believed they were a lot better than they really were. Such arrogance really bothers me big time. I tried to ignore them and pretend they were not there, but my youngest son was intimidated by them and sat down and watched us play. We had a good time once we go into a zone and ignored them and their stupid behavior.

The day before our oldest son re-hurt his hand when he drove on the tennis court for a ball. I had never seen do this before, so it was kind of odd. My next to oldest son was with us and was full of energy running all over the court. Maybe this motivated my oldest to expend too much energy and thus hurt himself. His first remark was he would not be able to go in the Army as his hand hurt so much and he could not do push ups! His recruiter was due to come to our house on Monday to check his physical fitness abilities. He was very discouraged and I was kind of shocked he wanted to play tennis on Monday with his hand tapped, but it is a stress reliever for him.

Yesterday we learned that his recruiter was coming to take him to an Army doctor to check his hand. Since he is over 18 and not full time in school, our medical insurance for him expired, so this was nice news to hear. We heard in the afternoon that his recruiter was taking him to the military hotel to wait for deployment to boot camp! That was interesting change of events. He went to get his hand checked so it must have been good enough as to not prevent him from going to boot camp. We got a phone call around 9pm last night that we would find out today if he was of to boot camp.

Today we heard from his recruiter that it would not be final until around 12:30pm as to whether he was off to boot camp or not. We never heard and he never came home to we assume he is in South Carolina at boot camp. We heard they pay them $250 to buy stuff they need as he really took stuff only for Tuesday appointment at the Army doctor, so that is good. He finally has started a new phase in his life. His recruiter told us we should get a phone call in a week. After nine weeks he will be done with boot camp and have a day off to see us. He will them go to Maryland to train as a tank and heavy machine mechanic. We hope this will be best for him!

soon to go

We received the final word today on where our oldest son will be going with the Army. He is joining next Wednesday and will doing his basic training in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Because he scored well on the military tests today, he will receive $8000 bonus if he completes boot camp, so that is good news. After that he will be stationed in Maryland as a mechanic. He will go in one rank above the lowest rank if he completes 40 push-ups within 2 minutes and 50 sit-ups within 2 minutes and runs a mile under 8 1/2 minutes within the next week before leaving for boot camp. He also has to memorize a bunch of Army jargon. This is all wonderful news as this will keep him busy and has a real goal for the next couple of months!

almost in

We heard late Friday afternoon that our oldest son was leaving for Army boot camp this evening, well actually at 3:30am Monday morning. His recruiter came to pick him up around 4pm today, after a whole day of restless family members wondering what was going to happen. We had a bit of a scare when he called Saturday morning for me to come pick him up as he had cut his hand. In his drunken state he was showing off for his friends and jumped off the porch and landed on bike in the yard and cut his right hand. He thought he may need stitches. Immediately I thought it was not really an accident but a ploy to get out of joining the Army for another week or two. Turns out the cut was not that bad and on the way home we bought butterfly bandages to seal the wound. He messed with his cut most of yesterday and today. He woke up at the last minute and wanted to go to church with us and then the rest of the day laid on the couch watched the Beijing Olympics with me. Nothing much exciting on, just hanging out doing nothing waiting for his recruiter. At 6pm I received a call from his recruiter that he had dropped him off, but that he only had to choose his Army career tomorrow and that would determine his boot camp location and start date and completion date of boot camp and length of his service. If we can just keep him home for the week, then all will be well by next Sunday night when he really leaves for boot camp. Just another step closer to him getting out on his own. I think he really wants to go now and will do just fine.