Got a call from ENS P, who solicited opinions from the local graybeards about flight school what? Three years ago? He’s a LTJG, now.
Got his wings, spent a year instructing in Meridian, recently completed SERE. On his way to the east coast Hornet RAG. Going to fly Super Hornets, good man himself. Positive and upbeat, serious about the work ahead. Attentive to his duty. Kind to his elders. Has come a long way. Has a very long way to go.
Wanted to get together for a beer, maybe, and our old accustomed haunt was agreed upon. Son Number One was asked to join us, and it turned out that his leisure suited our pleasure. It was good seeing him again.
It always is.
He’s on the brink of service selection, will know within a week or so. Three weeks at the outside. Aviation, EOD, surface warfare. It’s a hard time. Everything he’s dreamt about and worked so hard for seems so close, and the destination still so unclear. With everything trembling in the balance.
He’s run the harder course than did his old da, an electrical engineering major. Serving now as the second in command of his NROTC unit and on his way to fleeting up to the number one spot next semester. I’m fiercely proud of him.
And I remember how it was to stand there on the threshold, promised nothing but the opportunity to compete for a position in flight school. A position from whence a successful student, having cleared the non-trivial medical examination and completed aviation pre-flight indoctrination and primary flight training in the T-34C, might hope to compete for jets. From which position the successful student might compete for fighters. And so on.
It all seems so easy looking back on it through the lens of three decades. You get a flight school billet, select for jets, get fighters, cruise successfully, spend twenty years pushing fast metal around, lead young men in combat in a worthy cause. Command a squadron on the line.
It looks a lot different down at the bottom, looking up. There are a lot of Swiss cheese slices that have to line up just so for you to see your destination through the holes. See yourself where you dreamt to be.
You eat them one at a time.
Nothing to be done for it of course, not at this point. You strap the harness on, pull as hard as you can, hope for the best. Pray that the “needs of the service” align with your personal goals. Try to bloom where you’re planted if things don’t work out. Work on a Plan “B” if that’s what’s called for.
Things have changed over the years. A lot of things. Some haven’t. Flight school is fun if you keep your mind right. SERE schools sucks no matter who you are. There are brothers to meet, brothers of other mothers. There are leaders you’d die for, and a few you wouldn’t mind offing. The former outnumber the latter dramatically, especially in the aviation ranks.
But you learn from all of them.
I had my pints, bad the boys farewell – I had places to be. They seemed inclined to stay a bit, talk some more, like young men will.
It’s their Navy now.
“It’s their Navy now.”
And if that’s the case, we are all in good hands.
Oh to be young again… and retain what I’ve learned over the years!
Been three years since that original post??? Kenna be! I remember it clearly. Had I been asked, I wudda said it was last year. Oh, my.
Very nice Lex. A circle.
re- “It looks a lot different down at the bottom, looking up. ” It sure does. I remember how lucky I felt just to make JG!
Looking back we do take a lot of all that swimming upstream for granted..Thanks again for bringing it into focus. Were the hell has the time gone?
I wish ‘em both luck and will say a prayer for #1 son to have the opportunity to follow in the old man’s footprints. He certainly got a lot further to go, but ain’t that what it’s all about?
b2
Seems like so many years ago that I put my sword up for the last time. Ahhh, thinks I, that I’m still capable of such deeds as were accomplished in the past. But, alas, these youngsters impress me with how much their capabilities surpass mine of today. Grateful am I…sometimes envious…but are not we all of the up and coming generation?
Thankfully, those who embark leave us filled with such indescribable pride…Praise God…
Best advice like you said Lex is “flower where planted”. And things tend to work themselves out. And SERE wasn’t all that bad. In Maine at least, I waited till May, still had a ton of snow. Every time I hear our National Anthem played, every time, I think of that last moment in SERE and the pride. And then I get this urge to beat the hell out of all those around talking and not paying appropriate respect.
Agree with ManlyDad. I remember that original post, and when I read “three years ago” I thought no way, it was only last year. Guess time flies when you’re having fun.
Good luck to your son on his first choice
Claudio
Lo, these many years later, I can still remember a poster in the recruiter’s window. It showed a seat in a P-3 Orion, and it said, as I remember it, “There are fewer than 600 seats AW’s in the US Navy. Do you have what it takes to fill one of them?”
I must have stood there looking at that poster for some time, because eventually this Chief came out and asked if i was alright. I pointed to the poster and said “Is that right?” He replied that it was, and I said something to the effect that “I can do that”.
Now, I look back and understand what you mean by needing a large number of holes to line up just right. It was hard work, but the rewards can never be rightly measured. Never.
I envy your son, as I envy my own son, and that new LTJG. It is their navy now, you bet, but boy wouldn’t I jump at the chance to have a do-over, eh?
Heck, I’d even do it now for the pay I got then…
Lex, it’s your Navy too, by virtue of your dedication and years of service. Don’t cut yourself short, sir.
Great read!
He won’t be dissapointed with whatever he chooses in the Navy. However, after my past three years and now my first full hornet cruise underneath me there are very few things in life that are as good as being part of a squadron and having real brothers that you went into combat with. You can’t buy those kind of ties. The light at the end will seem like a pin prick for a long time but it is worth it when you get there for sure.
I’m with Manly Dad. I read the three years and had to reread it. Holy crap… I cannot believe it has been that long as it feels like last year that I read that post.
EE… that’s not only a tough major, just being in engineering, but in my opinion, the toughest of the engineering majors. What a smart frickin’ kid with a great head on his shoulders. The Navy is blessed to have him. I wish him to be happy with however it works out… and I am hopeful he gets what he wants most.
“That needs of the service” crap is what gets ‘em in the end. Probably end up flying a computer in some research lab in the Maryland mountains doing things they put you in jail for mentioning. Fascinating work even when you are always wondering if the sun is shining or its raining or snowing when its always a fluorescent 72 degrees and 50% humidity. (I gotta get my meds refilled….)
Well I’d say we are in good hands at that, Lex.
Best of luck to your son! Our firsties here just selected on Weds and most got what they wanted. Some couldn’t avoid the Nuke draft that’s going on, but such are the “needs of the Navy.” We’ll see though, things seem to always pan out well.
Last service selection I’ll be watching… next one is mine and my classmates. Very much looking forward to it.
I’m sure he’ll do the right thing, the Corps can use another good infantry officer.
Damned Lex…
I had to read this post twice. It is probably the best post you’ve ever written. Not for quantity or quality, but instead it’s all about two young men on the cusp of careers serving our country.
I have a 15 (almost 16 as he reminds me) year old son. He, like yours, wishes to follow in his father’s footsteps and serve. Makes me proud and a tad misty eyed.
Although, I want him to go to college first and consider more lofty options (like flying) once he gets a degree. He’d rather enlist right after high-school. Either way I’d still be proud of him, but I’d rather he didn’t have to muck about in the mud as I did.
~Paul
Thanks for posting an update on these fine young men Captain. Our future is definitely in good hands.
Daughter and I were out together the other day, and I was bragging about her going to boot camp this January, as I tend to do. A couple of people thanked her for serving her country. She was very gracious, but later told me it embarrasses her a little bit when people thank her and she hasn’t done anything yet.
My response was they’re thanking her for stepping up, and for what she’s going to do. I know she can live up to it, but I think she’s still wondering a little bit.
Ah, youth. So much ahead of them….
A friend of mine in NROTC at Oregon State recently got word that he’s been selected for Flight School.
He want’s the F-35… but he’s stated that if he doesn’t get something that bounces off a deck, he’ll go surface instead. He seems very uninterested in flying anything with a “P-” in it’s designation.