A Different Place

We are a military family.

On April 1, 2003, my wife called me at work to say our second son had phoned to talk. When she asked him what's up, he answered: "I joined the Army." My knees buckled. But then she said: "April Fools... he got us good with that one!" I laughed and began recovering, we said good bye, and I got back to my work. But, sometime that day, maybe driving home, I thought: "Where did that come from?" The next night he called again: "Dad, I really do want to join the Army." Come September, we saw him drive off with a friend as he headed out to report for basic infantry training on September 11 at Fort Benning. Four years later, August 2007, our Army son was safely out and back in Oregon.

Our dads and uncles were in WWII, her brothers and other relatives served, and one died, in Viet Nam - but I had not. She had seen brothers off to the Navy, but this was a different experience for both of us - children in the military. And being a parent-of-a-child-in-the-service wasn't over.

On June 28, 2006, our youngest son reported on Induction Day to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. While on a business trip in May a year earlier, I called home to check in and my wife said we had received a West Point graduation celebration announcement for the son of friends we hadn't seen since living in California years before. Our youngest son was only six months old when we moved to Oregon and didn't have any recollection of that family, so asked questions about them and began Web surfing about West Point. I didn't think West Point was such a great idea - it seemed like lots of second lieutenants were getting killed in Iraq at that time. In September, while on another work trip, I called and asked what was up. My wife had just gotten home from work and said our youngest had called our Congressman's office to find out what he needed to do to get a nomination to the Naval Academy. What is it with kids these days?

Our two younger guys are similar but different: one Army - enlisted infantry; the other Navy - headed to be an officer, maybe a pilot. As for the older two kids - also similar but different: our son - a youth director in church; our daughter - a children's director in another church. Our eldest put it this way: "Two of us are in the ministry, and two of us are in the military, both begin with an M and end with a Y, and both are on the front lines." The Naval and Military Academies' grounds are that way, too: similar, but different.

Since I was going to be in the Hudson Valley for a business trip (see: Local Food Sociology 101), I figured there was never a better time to visit the United States Military Academy - the Black Knights, the arch rivals of the Midshipmen. With all the travel I do, I typically fly in for meetings and then get out and back home as fast as I can. But being so close, I decided to leave early in the morning to check out West Point on the way to my conference. Living in Annapolis and having a son attending the Naval Academy, we are able to drive onto the Yard any time we want - a divers license and family pass is all it takes. We consider ourselves fortunate to be so close and able to lend support - home nearly every weekend, lots off food, a place to crash and be alone, or to bring along friends for a meal, lots more food - we know the Academy routines about as well as a parent who did not attend can. As for West Point, I have only read books, heard a few stories, know from a distance. So what is it like? Not being Cadet parents, or having the rights and privileges we do as Midshipman parents - how could I know what to do, where to go?
There was only one option: Tourist - park in the public lot, get your ticket at the visitor center, wear your N cap with pride, and hang close to the retired Marine Corps tourists, just in case.

Compared to the Naval Academy, at West Point the security is greater, and access is limited to where the tour bus takes you. But this makes sense. The Yard covers only 400 acres, is adjacent to downtown Annapolis - the capital city of Maryland - and is surrounded by rivers on three sides. It is compact, so where ever you look, there are easy views of water in all directions. West Point, on the other hand, is way out in the country side north of New York City, up the Hudson River, with the campus sited on 15,000 acres (a great description is given in James S. Robbins' excellent book, "Last in Their Class: Custer, Pickett and the Goats of West Point").
The buildings are gray like the cadet's uniforms, and the main chapel has a touch of a castle look from Medieval Europe. The Midshipmen sometimes wear all white - the color of bleached sails contrasted by aqua seas and blue skies. Thinking of the Yard as a Navy ship - compact and self-contained - floating on the waters that surround it. The Army's West Point - sprawling and tree-covered, mountainous with rugged terrain - gives the impression as if the cadets were troops soon to be deployed in the field, soon to be in battles half way around the world - and a river runs through it. West Point is not a place to take it all in with one view, except perhaps from high above on the Route 9W highway, where the details below are left to the imaginations of we who are mostly unfamiliar. But then there are parts we see that are the same: both filled with young men and women who signed up at a time of war, who have little privacy or time to themselves - squad life, hard studies, companies marching and training for long hours.

Both end in Y and both begin with early mornings, regardless of whether there is an N or A at the beginning of their service branch name, or the letter on their cap.

Yes, we are a military family.


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For an insider's perspective about A's and N's, see the blog story: "Beat Army, Yes - Bulldoze West Point, No" at:

http://midswatch.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/beat-army-yes-bulldoze-west-point-no/

For reference to family members mentioned in the service records above, see the Web links at:

http://www.thepurpleheart.com/recipient/RecipientDetails.aspx?wid=43ba8ff7-a665-4bd7-a304-411230e9ca1b

http://www.vetfriends.com/memorial/honoree.cfm?hindex=70766&user_ID=