So Proud

My two boys served in the military, one is still in. Eric went to VMI, the Virginia Military Institute, which statistically produced more Medal of Honor winners than all of the fancy military academies combined. No airconditioning and four-course breakfasts at VMI - and their graduates don't resign their commissions two years after graduation. Their role model is Cincinnatus, the Roman citizen soldier who put down the plowshare to pick up the sword. AJ is still serving and has been deployed to Cuba for a year already. With the war in Afghanistan, which I oppose, dragging on I fear he will be deployed there as a chaplain when he finishes seminary next year. We have a good military in this country and I've been contemplating why this is. The South boasts a "warrior culture" where many more volunteer to serve than other parts of the US. I was raised on war stories because both my parents served. My mother and her three siblings enlisted together at the onset of WWII. Prior to her joining the Army my mother had never crossed the Georgia state line. A Lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps, she got as far as Fort Rucker in Alabama before she met my Army Major father, a Swedish immigrant New Yorker, and that's how I became a Yankee. I believe there is a generational call to duty that is instilled in children. When Eric was 17 I answered the door. The Army recruiter said "Sign Here" to me, as I staggered back and groped for a chair. Instinctively I knew that time would come but I had tried to avoid it and didn't want to face it. I had forbidden anyone to give him toy guns and none were allowed in the house. Now he could play with all the guns he wanted, real guns. AJ never wanted to play with guns, but when 9-11 happened he heard the call to serve. They put him on a 50 caliber machine gun and he qualified no problem. He spent a year in Cuba, riding around on top of a hum-vee holding on to a 50 cal, just in case Osama bin Laden wanted to spring all those prisoners at Git-Mo. Now he doesn't carry a gun at all. He's not allowed. When I found his rifle cleaning kit from Basic, I said don't you want this, AJ? He said no, Mommy, I can't shoot people now, I have to pray for them. A "chaplain's assistant" is assigned to him and he is armed. Chaplains cannot carry a weapon. I wonder if Al-Qaeda or the Taliban will respect his non-combatant status. Land mines kill and maim indiscriminantly. AJ is enjoying some R&R in the Greek islands now before he reports for National Guard annual training next month. I'm so proud of my boys and their willingness to serve. Let us pause and reflect on the memory of our fallen service members. "Death leaves a heartache no one can heal - love leaves a memory no one can steal."