"Mom I Am Joining The Army"

It was mid-September 2009 when my youngest son, Jake, came home from football practice one evening and changed all the plans I had for him.  We were not what I would have called a "Military Family".   Sure our family had grandfathers in WWII, my father in law and uncles in Vietnam, and even my brother in law in Iraq, but NEVER EVER did I consider us a Military Family.  Jake came in and did the normal routine of changing from stinky disgusting practice clothes and devouring like a pig our dinner meal.  He starts walking towards his bedroom and casually turns and says to his father and I "Oh hey I met with a recruiter today, I am joining the Army".  WHAT? WHAT DID I JUST HEAR? 

I said to him, "No you can't, you are going to school to learn to work on computers.  You can't join the Army!"  Jake wasn't ever a fan of school...oh sure he loved playing sports and having friends, but school, noooooo.  So going on to more schooling after graduating just wasn't in his plan, but it was my plan.  So the simple "No" didn't work...so the next bright reply I gave him was, "Jake you don't even hunt!"  I have no idea what hunting for Maine deer had to do with joining the Army, but it seemed to make sense to me on that day as a good reason for why he couldn't join.  That first night it was left there.  I went to bed and cried wondering what in hek I had done to make him want to do such a thing?  Why was it so bad living here that he would join the Army to get away from it.  Surely there had to be something wrong, what kinda kid just up and decides such a thing?  

In the next few days we had many talks and conversations about the whole idea.  I learned that not only was he joining, but he wanted to join with an MOS that involved disarming bombs...EOD...explosive ordinance disposal.  Oh sure yup, that made it much easier to agree to!  Jake was only 17 at this time and wanted desperately for us to "sign him up" at that time so that it saved him a spot for this specialized training immediately after he graduated.  In my mind I needed a reason for why I would willingly sign away my baby to the United States Army.  I needed him to tell me why.  He had made it very clear that if we didn't sign the paper work for him at 17 that he had every intent of doing it the same day he turned 18.  Jake's mind was made up.  Once his mind is set to do something, there is no changing it...where he gets that from, I have no idea!  :)  So I sat him down before the recruiter was scheduled to come and pay us a visit.  Tell me your reason, why do you want to do this?  His answer was brief and simple, "I want to do something good that makes a difference."  Wow, sorta hard to argue with your 17 year old son who wants to do that.  

So there it was, on a night in October we signed him into the United States Army and we became a Military Family.  The above picture was taken on June 30, 2010 in Portland, Maine on the day that Jake left for Boot Camp Training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. 

Oh by the way, he still doesn't hunt!  

Please share with me how it came about that your child joined the Army.  I would love to hear from you...either comment below or click on my email address on the upper right hand corner of the screen.  Sending lots of love and support to you, your family, and Soldier.  Army Strong!