A Father's advice to his sons... a follow-up

Jan, who I interact with over at the Desperate Preacher's Site, responded in this way to yesterday's post:

Hey Rick, how about writing some advice for sons who are leaving their wives and children soon to head off, not to college, but to the deserts of the Middle East. I wish mine was heading off to college and I wish his dad had given him some of the advice you've given your son.

To which I replied (and now post here):

Jan, my heart sank when I read this.

Trust me when I tell you I wish I could go in place of your son. And I would sing with pride (tinged with fear) if my sons were to go with your son.

In some ways I think I've failed in raising my boys right because at this time in their lives they've chosen not to serve (and oh how I'm aware that some on this forum will take this bit of news and twist it like a knife... so be it however).

In 1978, when I was 18, the country was in the midst of the Jimmy Carter malaise... the military was being drawn down, my dad was retiring from the Air Force (after 23 years + of service) and I chose not to go in (especially after seeing what the draw down and it's after affects were doing to men like my father and the men he served alongside with) plus, I had met the woman I'm still married to and couldn't stand the thought of leaving her behind to join a military with little future. Instead, I became a defense contractor (after going to school for a couple of years while working full time as an assistant produce manager) and have been contributing behind the scenes in indirect ways to support our men and women in uniform ever since. Oh how I wish I could be alongside them today (and I know what that looks and sounds like, trust me I do, but I mean it so damned sincerely). But I've checked (and double-checked) and at 45+, they won't let me hook up.

I say all this (and open myself up to the barbs, arrows and slings inevitably coming from the moonbat fringe and their sycophantic stealth fan club members) to say that you should be (and I'm sure are) so very proud of your son. And I hope that he knows that there are people like me out there so very proud of his service.

No, that doesn't help you any (or the wife or girlfriend that he leaves behind) and for that I'm so damned sorry.

It's true that lacking military experience I'm probably least qualified to give your son advice but having worked with the military for 20+ years, having been an Air Force brat, I can say with confidence that those who serve today in this all volunteer army are the cream of the crop.

What with the propaganda being fed to a gullible public, the daily barrage of nothing but bad news (despite the fact that good is taking place and more so) and the fact that idiots like Dick Durbin, Ted Kennedy and others who are saying things that embolden those out to kill your son, they serve still, they serve honorably, they sacrifice their careers, their personal lives and yes, some of them pay the ultimate sacrifice so that others in positions of power can say things that bring them personal danger, so that you and I can converse freely on the Internet, so that people your son has never met and who live in far away lands can enjoy a taste of the very freedom we here take for granted daily.

I have no words of advice for your son other than to train hard, pray harder, and be sure to keep in touch with you and his loved ones often.

And to know that there are those who are supporting the troops in tangible ways, who are not being used as tools of propaganda by the enemy and who dearly want them to come home safe and sound into your arms and those they've left behind.

My hat's off to boys like your son. And I wish that my boys would wake up to the challenges this nation and the free world faces at the hands of zealots and the powerful ignorant (and their propagandists in the media) here in this country who support them with their ill chosen (and lie filled)words.

I will pray for him and often Jan. Please IM me his first name. And I will not only pray but think of him often.

Your son and boys (and girls) like him are God's angels today in my less than humble view (and I'll go to war with those who think otherwise).

God bless him, them and God bless the mothers (especially you Jan, you who also are one of God's angels, simply fighting on another front), fathers and other loved ones who they leave behind.

Please keep me posted on his whereabouts.

Please.

And let him know that there are multitudes like me who think dearly of him and those he serves with.

Please.

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i love it..