Leaving Home

In January, 2001, Ben decided he wanted to be a United States Marine. We had been encouraging him to consider serving in the Armed Forces. We were concerned that he needed time to mature before starting college. We have so many friends whose sons have gone off to school, partied hard for a semester or a year, been kicked out of school, and then spent a couple of years working at Best Buy before slowly getting going with their studies again. We felt, and continue to feel, that national service provides the structure many young people need to help them develop to their full potential.

I agitated for him to consider the Navy. I loved the time I spent in the Canadian Navy. Julie, on the other hand, thought Ben needed more discipline, and encouraged him to consider the Marines. The Marines won. I think it probably was the challenge, "Are you good enough to be one of us?" that helped him makeup his mind. I know the excellent job done by his recruiter, Staff Sergeant Cordova, helped convince me that the Corps was a good choice. I was concerned that all he would learn would be 23 ways to kill with his bare hands, and how to shoot a man at 500 yards in a cross-wind. Well, there's a lot more to the Marine Corps than I had appreciated. Ben was initially selected for the Aviation Operations field and during Marine Combat Training, he was informed that he would be trained as an Air traffic Controller.

Ben spent seven months as a poolee in the Deferred Entry Program. Every week on Thursday night, the poolees and recruiters got together for some physical training. And every month they spent a Saturday in similar fashion. Ben was given a ship-out date of August 6, so he geared his fitness program to have himself ready on that date. On May 1, he started running. Within a few weeks he was doing three mile runs four or five days a week. We put a pull-up bar in a tree in front of the house. From an initial maximum of five pull-ups, Ben improved to eleven before he left.

On August 4 we had a going away party for Ben. On August 5 we dropped him off at the Arlington Recruiting Office, and on August 6 he caught an evening flight to San Diego.

This is Ben and Patrick at Ben's going-away party. It was a bitter-sweet evening.	[click on thumbnails to see full size images]
On Sunday afternoon we fed Ben a last steak dinner and took him to the Arlington Recruiting Office.
Max came along to say goodbye. Here they are waiting for the other poolees to arrive.
On Monday, August 6, 2001, Ben was processed through MEPS, sworn in, and given orders to fly to San Diego and report to MCRD. We saw him off at the airport.
He was glad to see everyone that came, and raring to go.
A final hug for his cousin Allison.
Saying goodbye to his grandfather.
A last farewell to grandma
See ya, Mom!
This is the group of new recruits as they were about to board their plane.
Boarding.
Our last glimpse as he entered the jetway.
And they were off. It was a long 13 weeks until we saw Ben again.