slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

For this coming Sunday, November 10th...the USMC Birthday...I once again offer the following.....

By Frank Schaeffer, and first printed November 26th, 2002.

Before my son became a Marine, I never thought much about who was defending me. Now, when I read of the war on terrorism or the coming conflict in Iraq, it cuts to my heart. When I see a picture of a member of our military who has been k**led, I read his or her name very carefully. Sometimes I cry.

In 1999, when the barrel-chested Marine recruiter showed up in dress blues and bedazzled my son John, I did not stand in the way. John was headstrong, and he seemed to understand these stern, clean men with straight backs and flawless uniforms. I did not. I live on the Volvo-driving, higher education-worshiping North Shore of Boston. I write novels for a living. I have never served in the military.

It had been hard enough sending my two older children off to Georgetown and New York University. John's enlisting was unexpected, so deeply unsettling. I did not relish the prospect of answering the question "So where is John going to college?" from the parents who were itching to tell me all about how their son or daughter was going to Harvard. At the private high school John attended, no other students were going into the military. "But aren't the Marines terribly Southern?" asked one perplexed mother while standing next to me at the brunch following graduation. "What a waste, he was such a good student," said another parent. One parent spoke up at a school meeting and suggested that the school should "carefully evaluate what went wrong."

When John graduated from three months of boot camp on Parris Island, 3,000 parents and friends were on the parade deck stands. We parents and our Marines not only were of many races but also were representative of many economic classes. Many were poor. Some arrived crammed in the backs of pickups, others by bus. John told me that a lot of parents could not afford the trip.

We in the audience were white and Native American. We were Hispanic, Arab and African-American and Asian. We were former Marines wearing the scars of battle, or at least baseball caps emblazoned with battles' names. We were Southern w****s from Nashville and skinheads from New Jersey, black kids from Cleveland wearing 'do rags and white ex-cons with ham-hock forearms defaced by jailhouse tattoos. We would not have been mistaken for the educated and well-healed parents gathered on the lawns of John's private school a half-year before.

After graduation, one new Marine told John, "Before I was a Marine, if I had ever seen you on my block I would've probably k**led you, just because you were standing there." This was a serious statement from one of John's good friends, an African-American ex-gang member from Detroit who, as John said, "would die for me now, just like I'd die for him."

My son has connected me to my country in a way that I was too selfish and insular to experience before. I felt closer to the waitress at our local diner than to some of my oldest friends. She has two sons in the Corps. They are facing the same dangers as my boy. When the guy who fixes my car asks me how John is doing, I know he means it. His younger brother is in the Navy.

Why were I and the other parents at my son's private school so surprised by his choice? During World War II, the sons and daughters of the most powerful and educated families did their bit. If the immorality of the Vietnam War was the only reason those lucky enough to go to college dodged the draft, why did we not encourage our children to volunteer for military service once that war was done?

Have we wealthy and educated Americans all become pacifists? Is the world a safe place? Or have we just gotten used to having somebody else defend us? What is the future of our democracy when the sons and daughters of the janitors at our elite universities are far more likely to be put in harm's way than are any of the students whose dorms their parents clean?

I feel shame because it took my son's joining the Marine Corps to make me take notice of who is defending me. I feel hope because perhaps my son is part of a future "greatest generation." As the storm clouds of war gather, at least I know that I can look the men and women in uniform in the eye. My son is one of them. He is the best I have to offer. He is my heart.
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Frank Schaeffer's book, co-written with his son, Marine Cpl. John Schaeffer, is "Keeping Faith: A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps."

Mike Easterday

Well said!

lpnmajor Loc: Arkansas

I don't believe that it's members define the Service, it's the Service that defines it's members.

Hug

Very profound post.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

I believe you to be right, Doc

bggamers Loc: georgia

Slatten I had my morning laugh then you came and made me cry. Thanks for posting

bahmer

An excellent post there Slatten thanks.

badbobby Loc: texas

some times(not often)
the dastardly one makes a good post
Ooorah

Rose42

Nice post.

Pariahjf

Great post. Here's a question that I want to have answered: How come it's the same families that are doing the work of protecting our country? Generation after generation after generation? That's the real issue here. EVERY family should be involved.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/05/26/memorial-day-veterans-families

We Salute You: Military Service Is a Family Tradition for These Americans. Generation after generation, love of family and love of country inspire these patriots to enlist.

Many of us have heard family stories about someone—maybe a grandparent, or a more distant relative—who served in the military at some point in American history. Maybe we’ve heard a story about a cousin who landed on the beaches at Normandy or an in-law who fought in the jungles of Vietnam.

In some families, military service is much more than an echo of history. It’s a tradition threaded through generation after generation, as alive and thriving as ever.

Pausing to celebrate Memorial Day, and our country’s fallen service members are honored at ceremonies nationwide, TakePart spoke with four service members—veterans who have left the service and others actively serving—who trace military service back generations in their families and are looking ahead to the service of the next.

Chuck Putman wasn’t surprised when his father traced their family history all the way back to ancestors who were castle guards in ancient England. “Every generation since has served in a military capacity,” said Putman, who recently retired from the U.S. Army after serving numerous combat tours. His great-grandfather was an infantryman in World War I. His grandfather was a Navy soldier in World War II. And his dad? Naval Reserve during Vietnam. But family history isn’t the reason he chose to serve: “I simply used it to start my life...and examine the world from larger than a small-town U.S.A. perspective,” he said.

His wife, Tammy Myers-Putman, works for the Department of the Army in the Civil Service, helping victims of natural disasters.“My father was in Korea, my stepfather in Vietnam,” she said. Two of her uncles served in World War II. She totally supported Chuck’s decision to serve, despite the dangers.

They’d been friends since they were just 16, she says, and she was “very proud to become his wife."
The couple isn’t raising kids, but their nephew Alex recently called them for advice as he considered joining the Air Force.

“It honestly has been something he has wanted to do from the time he was a child, and I support him 100 percent. I gave him a pile of advice already,” Putman said, about “focusing his attention on the task at hand and taking advantage of every educational benefit, both military and civilian, along the way.”

Gary Holder grew up hearing stories about his uncles who served. “My Uncle Larry Walden’s story of the Navy and all his adventures had a significant role in me joining the military,” he said. “Growing up, I would always hear how proud everyone was of Larry Walden for making a career of the Navy. I remember my mother talking about the benefits associated with retiring from the military and how everyone loved Larry.”

When his time came, Holder spoke with a Navy recruiter but opted to join the Army. He’s glad he served and “would be honored if my children joined a branch of service. I have two daughters in college and frequently talk to them about joining the Reserves or National Guard. It will help pay for college while allowing you the opportunity to serve this great nation of ours.”

Cassandra Partee has served in the Army for 11 years, her husband has served for six, and they can’t imagine life any other way. “I have been blessed to be in a very patriotic family,” Partee said. Two of her three brothers currently serve in the Army, as did their dad, who recently retired as a command sergeant major. Cousins and uncles have served as well. She remembers “growing up and watching my father and my uncle participate in so many ceremonies, and seeing all the soldiers on the parade field standing there with such discipline.” She knew they went through pain and never showed a moment of it.

“Since I was a child I wanted to be a part of that, and now that I am I can tell you that it is extremely painful, but I wouldn’t change anything about what I have experienced,” she said. “Serving in the military has helped me become a better person.”

Her long, storied tradition is likely to continue. “I have two children that seem to mimic all that their father and I do,” Partee said. “So I have no doubt that they might consider joining the service later on in life.”
Despite the dangers and the months they’d spend apart, she is ready to support them all the way.

Both of Daniel Sudler’s grandfathers proudly served, as did a great uncle. His brother saw battle as a Special Forces sniper and now serves in the National Guard. Daniel? He joined the Marine Corps and served as a machine gunner in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He chose to serve, as so many men in his family did, because of “our deep appreciation for what this country has done for us,” he said. “I come from Jews from Newark, New Jersey, and Irish from Brooklyn. And we’ve done well for ourselves because this country has been good to us. We are the American dream.”
At age 30, he doesn’t have kids just yet. But if the day comes, he will support his family’s next generation’s choice to serve.

“Nowadays, when we join the military,” he said, people ask why. “Back in my grandfather’s day, it was ‘Why not?’ ”

Pariahjf

Thanks!

promilitary

I agree. THE draft should be reinstated. EVERY male and female should be required to serve
their country for two years in come capacity. It doesn't have to be in a combat unit.....there are
still enough courageous young men to do that. (I leave out women here because I don't believe
women should be sent into combat).

Pariahjf

I can agree with this. Then maybe everyone could understand what civility, honor, and teamwork actually mean.

Lt. Rob Polans ret.

I agree that most families should take part in the country's defense. Now I can only answer your question as it pertains to me. My Aunts and Uncles served in WWII (those already in America), then my mom and dad then I did. My niece joined the corps in 2014 and was sent to Afghanistan to pick up after me. My nephew is in Kuwait, I have no idea what the NG is doing there, poppy gardening?