Semper Fi

LAST EDITED ON Apr-19-04 AT 07:30 PM (CDT)
 
This has nothing to do with control line. My 19 year old son has been notified that his ship date to the Marine Corp bootcamp in San Diego, Ca. is May 3rd. This has been a struggle to say the very least. To all you fathers of younger children out there I can offer this advice. You can be friends with your kids but don't make friends out of them. Always be Dad first. Don't take their side over your Wifes. I am guilty of all of the above. My oldest son I made toe the line. He has turned out to be a very nice young man and is finishing college. Why I slacked off on the next 2 I am not sure. But I can tell you it was costly. From phone calls from school to in home pee tests, getting him out of jail, I have been there and done it. What I am hoping for now is to have a 19 year old boy leave home May 3rd and come home a man in 13 weeks. Obviously life for the youngest one has gotten tougher here at home. Back to toeing the line. If I did do anything right with all 3 it was to be sure they all made Eagle when they were in Boy Scouts. They did.

Bill

I thank him for his service!

My step-dad went to the Marines as a young man going down the wrong path. Was in all sorts of trouble.

After the Marines, he put himself through school, then college, then law school. He is the senior partner of his own law firm in NYC and has been for 25+ years.

Swears to this day that the Marines is what changed him.

Again, please thank your son for serving and I wish you both the best!

Hi Bill,
I totally understand. I had to be taught that tough love is what works. Much counciling and patience. OH! and the Eagle Scout thing is invaluable. My friends kid did good in the Army and was advanced when they found out he was an Eagle Scout. I guess they figured he knew how to take care of things and was responsible. My son is 24 now and turning out to be a regular guy. We get along great but we came across a bumpy road to get there. He's going to stop by this coming weekend to help me trim my latest plane. He is more artistic than I am. I am kind of a clunk.

Greg and Tom, thankyou for your responces! The Eagle Scout rank is a good thing for sure. He gets a automatic advance of 2 ranks on completion of basic training. Scouting has taken alot of heat the last few years because of their stand on gays and so forth. Being a private organization they are intitled to their beliefs. As a retired Scoutmaster and a Eagle Scout myself I am somewhat biased the same way. I feel it can't be all bad that Scouting teaches young men when the statistics show that there are more Eagle Scouts that are in the FBI and are astronauts for NASA then there are that are not. Pretty darn good record.

Bill

Bill,

There have been many fond and some not so fond memories of my enlistment in the Marine Corps, like most things, it's what you decide to make of the experience. Needless to say, the Marine Corps forced me to take an honest look at myself and make changes accordingly. There was no better place for me to get "squared away" in a short hurry. Always keep communication and a relationship open
with your son, and begin to create a new history together.

Semper Fi,

Mike Wada

I'm going to FT. Sill Oklahoma to see my son's Graduation from the ARMY on the 11-13 of MAY. Looking forward for it.

scott(very proud)Riese

Scott:
That's great. We do appreciate these fine young men's service and sacrifice.
While you are in Oklahoma, why not drive 80 miles or so NE up the turnpike from Ft. Sill and make or observe our May 15th contest in Oklahoma City. E mail me for details if you can make it.
Jim

I too understand the cost of going softer on the last child. I don't know when I started but I surely did. I recently went through a bout with my 20 year old and had to sell some of my motors just to help him out. I am now the tough parent (not his best friend) I should have been. I am proud of my son and spend real time with him daily now.

Be proud of your son as we are proud he is serving.

Zuriel

Bill,

Whoa! The first brutally honest posting I've seen in a very long time. My congratulations.

First thing, you tell your son he is fully supported by me, people like me, and to ignore the likes of Ted Kennedy, the latest U.S. politician to be used in recruitment to the ranks of Sadr and his Iranian chums.

Second, I want him to know how much his service is appreciated. Many of us get it, know who is protecting our freedom.

As to the Scouts, I am rather conflicted on this issue. According to the Seattle Times, refusing gay men the chance to serve as Scoutmasters is a bad thing.

According to same source, allowing gay men the chance to serve as priests in the Catholic church is a bad thing.

Truly, this is a conundrum...

I can tell you this, nearly every time I read a news story attacking the Scouts I send 'em a check. It's never a big check, but it always feels really good to sign that sucker and mail it off.

My best to you and your family,

Dan,
Is that the same Ted Kennedy that is the more conservative senator from Massachusetts?

>Dan,
>Is that the same Ted Kennedy that is the more conservative
>senator from Massachusetts?

John,

My man, how could you have gotten this so wrong??!! Do you not pay attention to anything at all?

A correction, merely for your edification:

"Is that the same Ted Kennedy *whom* is the more conservative
senator from Massachusetts?"

Affirmative.

Insert 19 assorted smiley faces.

Dan wrote,

"...My man, how could you have gotten this so wrong??!! Do you not pay attention to anything at all?

A correction, merely for your edification:

'Is that the same Ted Kennedy *whom* is the more conservative senator from Massachusetts?'

Affirmative...."
=======================
Mr. Rutherford,

How could you have corrected the original post so wrongly?!? I believe that, if you'll check your your Warriners' Grammar, you'll note that, since the antecedent of the pronoun (whom) in the sentence quoted above is "Ted Kennedy," a name used in the nominative case (predicate nominative for the original pronoun "that"), the original composer of the sentence was correct in his usage. "Who" is nominative case while "whom" is objective case. Using the grammatical rule that a pronoun should be of the same case as its antecedent, one easily sees that you were mistaken.

(Insert twenty smileys here.)

As a long time volunteer Scouter, I thank you for your support.

LAST EDITED ON Apr-22-04 AT 02:55 PM (CDT)
 
My Dear O.S.,

I saw your loving note yesterday, but as I was over my quota of one apology per day, having already made one, it was ignored.

Apologies are extended to Mr. Wright. Please keep this act a secret.

Many thanks for confirmation as to why my editorial leadership resulted in less than a year's worth of Race Car World being published.

Are you ever going to get down here for a flying session or a contest? Surely you and I could cause some serious mischief.

It has been 45 years since I went into the Marine Corps and still to read "Semper Fi" commands my attention. I wouldn't do it again for anything, yet I wouldn't give up the experience. Even though I am retired from the USAF, my greatest pride is still that I was a Marine. Did you know that today's USMC has the highest moral code of any of the services. It will do your son wonders as the environment of teamwork sets in his head. It brings chills yet to hear taps at night, or the raising of the flag. I am sad that much of that feeling is not taught in schools any more.

One more thing, In 1957, I stood in the platoon looking at my Drill Instructors, one white, one hispanic, and one African American, as they commanded..."Look at the man on your left! Now look at the man on your right! Now get this through your $%@# heads. There is no red, no white, no brown, no black in the Marine Corp. There is one color...GREEN, Marine Green. We don't play that game! Your son is off to a great adventure that will shape the rest of his life.

Note to non Marine folks, I have worked with members of all 5 services and have the greatest respect for all of them and the honor they do for our country. No turf war please.

When I was a fresh Cadet at the USAF Academy, I had to journey to Balboa Naval Hospital for major surgery. On the way, I met a Marine Captain, Chan Crangle. Captain Crangle and I became fast friends and I listened with rapt attention to his time in VietNam as a Platoon leader back in the early days of the war. Truly the Marines then were just as gung ho as they are now. The good Captain taught me what "Duty, Honor, Country" are all about and made me into the officer that I became during my career. When I arrived at the Pentagon in 1994, I was blessed to run into Col Crangle, who was now at the end of a distinguished career. Still a Marine through and through. Marines have a special place in my heart and I owe all of them a special debt of thanks for what Col Crangle did for me. "SEMPER FI" Marines.

>It has been 45 years since I went into the Marine Corps and
>still to read "Semper Fi" commands my attention. I wouldn't
>do it again for anything, yet I wouldn't give up the
>experience. Even though I am retired from the USAF, my
>greatest pride is still that I was a Marine. Did you know
>that today's USMC has the highest moral code of any of the
>services. It will do your son wonders as the environment of
>teamwork sets in his head. It brings chills yet to hear
>taps at night, or the raising of the flag. I am sad that
>much of that feeling is not taught in schools any more.
>
>One more thing, In 1957, I stood in the platoon looking at
>my Drill Instructors, one white, one hispanic, and one
>African American, as they commanded..."Look at the man on
>your left! Now look at the man on your right! Now get this
>through your $%@# heads. There is no red, no white, no
>brown, no black in the Marine Corp. There is one
>color...GREEN, Marine Green. We don't play that game! Your
>son is off to a great adventure that will shape the rest of
>his life.
>
>Note to non Marine folks, I have worked with members of all
>5 services and have the greatest respect for all of them and
>the honor they do for our country. No turf war please.
>
>-30-
>Shel

Bill, thanks for posting. Be sure and thank your son for his service to our country. He can never be told that too often. We want to hear about his progress, and particularly his graduation. I live in San Diego, worked for the Navy for 31 years (included many USMC projects thank you very much) and would like to attend his graduation. So let us all know. If you can remember, let me know by my email address re: his graduation date.

Nick Vanmatre
[email protected]

As a former member of the US Navy it was at first a natural instinct to want him to "follow in my shoes". However as things went from bad to worse I became convinced that the bootcamp for the Navy just wasn't as tough a experience as I wanted him to have. Just maybe? the DI's would give him the discipline I had so completely failed to give. I had to send this son out of state to complete High School. He was not allowed to come home without the diploma in hand. He did. Something about living in Klamath Falls, Oregon inspired him to finish.
Thankyou Dan for your support and to all the rest of you in Stuntland as well!

Bill

Bill,
Over the years, I have known personally 20 or so young guys who went into the Marines as a last choice sort of deal. They had been in trouble, thrown out of homes, every sort of bad thing you can imagine. And these guys came back "men" in many respects. It doesn't take with everyone, and it doesn't work over night, but very probably your son will also rise to the challenge. He has demonstrated that can do that by graduating from HS under less than ideal circumstances. And, he is going in knowing that the Marines are saying, "we only want a few good men" Not everyone; so he is rising to the challenge with this enlistment. Tell him, he is joining a very large family. Once a Marine, always a Marine.

Nick Vanmatre

Yep!!

A Marine doesn't do military service. When asked, he'll tell you he's in or served in "the Corps."

Bill, I meant to call you this weekend, a flu bug and my non-stop work schedule got the better of me...

Please pass this on to Gary when you can.

Gary, I am proud of you and what you have/are becoming. I know that you are destined to be a fine Marine. Your courage and determination are exemplary. I wish that I had some words of wisdom to offer you, but all that I have to offer is my prayers and hopes for you future. Keep the Faith, Fight the Good Fight. Semper Fidelis.

Your fond admirer, Phil

Phil, thankyou for your kind words! I can't tell Gary at this time what you had to say as he left at 3:10 AM Monday morning. Won't be seeing him again for 13 weeks. Have a good day!

Bill