Yesterday, Jeff and I met Kerry at the Army National Guards Recruiting Office. It is official. Jeff is now a member of the Idaho National Guard. He will go to Salt Lake City (I know...it's in Utah, not Idaho...) on Monday afternoon. There he will be treated to a stay at the Radisson Inn (according to the recruiter, it's a 4 star hotel...whatever!). On Tuesday, he will have his physical. Then, on the way home, they will stop in Pocatello for their uniforms. I have always loved a man in uniform, but this isn't what a mom ever has in mind. The recruiter did point out that it's my fault Jeff joined. Afterall, I taught him to have a love of his country, be respectful, and serve others. He's only doing what he's been taught.
The rub of it all is that Jeff scored excellently on his exam. He was told that because of that, he can pick any job he wants. So, he picked a safe one, right? WRONG. He picked "combat engineer". They are the guys that build bridges for our troops to go across, then they blow them up so no one else can use them. Did I also mention that they disarm land mines? He will have his monthly drills until next summer when he will report for 14 weeks of boot camp and training. He will be in Missouri for boot camp, and they told us that we can go out for graduation and pick him up then. Might be kind of fun!
Then, he will go back to his monthly drills for 6 months, and then they will put him on "inactive status" so that he can take two years for his mission. The good thing is that Sgt. Wood said that he will be able to go to college before he is deployed. I don't like that word "deployed", by the way.
Sad as this might make me, I must say that I'm very proud of him. He's incredibly unselfish to do this, especially knowing that he could end up dying for his country (believe me, he knows...I used that on him, hoping to change his mind...or at least try to get him to be a paralegal or something!)
2 comments:
I love this one...don't tell anyone...but you just secretly approved of him joining! Jeff really is a good kid and will do great (even if he is still about 10 in my mind and that is scary thinking of a 10 year old with a gun!)
Should I remind you now that he had a gun at the age of 8. "You'll shoot your eye out" come to mind? LOL But this gun will be a little bigger than the guns that he used to torture older sisters, little brothers, and neighbor children that made him crazy... You are right, however. I am proud of him, and I do approve after he gave me he reasons! :)
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