Would you encourage your daughters to enlist?

[bg]

This thread reminds me of our household a little over 4 years ago - my wife and I get home from work one night and our younger son is waiting for us. He looks really worried, and says "You guys might want to sit down - I've done something that you might think is stupid". We look at each other, wondering how much trouble he's in, and what it's going to cost us. Then he tells us: "I've joined the Navy"

The back story: he graduated college with a computer science degree and spent 2 years looking for a job, but here in the Silicon Valley entry level jobs were quite scarce at the time - any opening that came up was quickly grabbed by a laid-off person with tons of experience. So he started to look at the military - he said his first choice was Army so he could be a Paratrooper like his old man but every time he went by the recruiter's office there was nobody there. One day the Navy recruiter caught him (their offices were in the same building) and invited him in for a talk. He ended up signing on for 5 years, got the A School he wanted - he originally asked for Photography, which got changed to Journalism while he was in Boot camp, and ended up Mass Communications when the Navy merged 3 ratings. He's now working for the Fleet Public Affairs in San Diego. He's been on 3 deployments - on the USS Stennis as part of the "surge" in 2007, last year on the USS Peleliu, and he's leaving this month on the USS Nimitz. When we gets back from this deployment he's already volunteered for, and been accepted, an IA assignment as a combat photographer in Afghanistan.

Coming to the point: he never talked to us about his decision until after he signed the papers - if he had we would have definitely encouraged him. I would have probably had him try a few different recruiters' offices to find an Army one that would talk to him! But in the end he has changed from a rather rebellious, long-haired, goalless young person into a responsible adult with definite, honorable long-term life goals, although he still has his personality quirks!

Sorry to hijack this thread!

That's an excellent story. Except for the "Navy" part. But otherwise excellent.

Now... if he can't be a paratrooper, he can at least join us here!

[LadyDoc]

This thread reminds me of our household a little over 4 years ago - my wife and I get home from work one night and our younger son is waiting for us. He looks really worried, and says "You guys might want to sit down - I've done something that you might think is stupid". We look at each other, wondering how much trouble he's in, and what it's going to cost us. Then he tells us: "I've joined the Navy"

The back story: he graduated college with a computer science degree and spent 2 years looking for a job, but here in the Silicon Valley entry level jobs were quite scarce at the time - any opening that came up was quickly grabbed by a laid-off person with tons of experience. So he started to look at the military - he said his first choice was Army so he could be a Paratrooper like his old man but every time he went by the recruiter's office there was nobody there. One day the Navy recruiter caught him (their offices were in the same building) and invited him in for a talk. He ended up signing on for 5 years, got the A School he wanted - he originally asked for Photography, which got changed to Journalism while he was in Boot camp, and ended up Mass Communications when the Navy merged 3 ratings. He's now working for the Fleet Public Affairs in San Diego. He's been on 3 deployments - on the USS Stennis as part of the "surge" in 2007, last year on the USS Peleliu, and he's leaving this month on the USS Nimitz. When we gets back from this deployment he's already volunteered for, and been accepted, an IA assignment as a combat photographer in Afghanistan.

Coming to the point: he never talked to us about his decision until after he signed the papers - if he had we would have definitely encouraged him. I would have probably had him try a few different recruiters' offices to find an Army one that would talk to him! But in the end he has changed from a rather rebellious, long-haired, goalless young person into a responsible adult with definite, honorable long-term life goals, although he still has his personality quirks!

Sorry to hijack this thread!

Not a hijack at all!! Thank you for sharing that. Sounds like your son has found his niche. That's good to hear.