Harry Krause wrote:
JimH wrote:
"Bill" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Jul 2, 2:37 pm, "JimH" ask wrote:
August 13, 2007. One day before our 25th Wedding Anniversary our
son leaves
for Paris Island. He is slotted for Military Police training after
completing basic training and *earning* his right to officially call
himself
a Marine. He originally planned delayed entry in mid September but
the MP
opportunity came up if he went in earlier.

Even before his decision to join the Marines he has been
concentrating on
his physical condition, recently completing a community event 5 mile
race
and finishing in 2nd place.

He will continue with the physical preparation but will now start to
mentally focus on the fact that he will be leaving for Paris Island
in 6
weeks.

We are very proud of him and his decision to join the Marine Corps.
Tell him Sempre Fi for me. It's really an amazing thing to do and a
difficult choice but a wiser man than me once said that anything in
life worth having doesn't come easy. Your son is going to know what
those words mean real soon. I've never met him but I'm proud.

Bill


Thank you Bill.

I will be printing this entire thread for him to read prior to him
leaving.

On the behalf of my son, thanks for all the support!



I'm still at Virginia Beach (fishing vacation, as it were), so I will
keep this brief. As I stated before, I hope your boy comes home to you
safe and sound.

I think this damned war stinks and that Bush and his boys lied us into
it, but my thoughts about this incompetent administration have nothing
to do with your son's or anyone else's decision to serve their country.

Bon chance to your boy. The worse that happens to him, he and his
company should plough their way through a harem.

Back in town tonight sometime, if the weather holds. Man, did we catch
fish, including five huge keeper stripers right at the damned slip. We
tossed them all back, though. A commercial boat next to us was prepping
its bait for a run, and the mate kept tossing what he wasn't going to
use overboard. Apparently the stripers know about this, they hang
around, and they lunge for the scraps. We baited up a couple of hooks
with the same sort of squid, and they went for it. Dumb fish... :}

I too do not want any more soldiers to get hurt, and have complete
respect for those who want to serve our country in the military, but I
can't figure out why anyone or anyone's parents would want to or
endorse/support sending their children to Iraq. It is similar to
sending your children to Viet Nam the last year of the war.

I hope all of our soldiers are out of Iraq soon, but if it was tomorrow
it would not be soon enough.