When my son/daughter first spoke about joining the service I…

[Navy for Moms Admins]

Story Time anyone?
I know when you first join N4M’s one of our standard Q’s is: When my son/daughter first spoke about joining the service I…

And then usually there are the standard answers like:
Was concerned or afraid, Was confused, Needed to learn more about it, Was proud, Was relieved, Encouraged him/her, Said “No way!”

But I'm starting this thread- because I wanted to hear the stories and memories behind these standard answers! Things like: How did they bring it up to you? What was the reasoning? I see your responses to this question and I think things like "I wonder why they were confused. Or if they said “no way” how did still end up joining?" Heh. Plus, I think every mom on here has an interesting story to tell.
So (pretty please) take us back to that moment…

[Becky]

does the navy have a delayed entry program so that juniors can attend bootcamp in the summer, then finish their senior year before going active?

[Kim Vinal]

We always told our boys growing up that they needed a plan for when they finished high school: either college or a job or the military. My husband (a fabulous stepdad to my two sons) was in the Marine Corp. and told them that they should consider either the Navy or Air Force over the Army or Marines for a variety of reasons. As Stephen progressed through high school, he didn't seem to really have a strong direction. He talked about this or that, but nothing that he felt passionate about. Navy recruiters had come to his campus and he talked with them. That evening when I got home from work, Stephen followed me into my bedroom to tell me that he had been talking with some recruiters and wanted me to talk with them, too. I said I was willing to do that and he said they were in the living room NOW waiting for me!! Talk about surprise! So we talked a bit and Stephen started their testing. He scored so high on his ASVAB that they sort of targeted him, started meeting him at school, coming to the house, calling him. He was feeling a little harrassed and asked me to run some interference for him. Finally, he got completely fed up and said that he would not go into the Navy. He felt so pressured to make a decision before he was really ready. I was very disappointed because after all our conversations, I felt this would be the best choice for him. We talked about his decision to stop the process and he was firm, so we backed off.

After he finished high school, he had a local job and was going to a junior college, doing well and enjoying it, so we left things be. After one semester of school, he decided that he wanted to go live with his dad and continue going to school there. Things were going along quite nicely for him and out of the blue he called to tell us that he had enlisted. Not that he was thinking about it again, but that he had signed the paperwork and everything. It was a done deal.

Since we had pretty much gone through things with him the first time around, he knew what to expect and what to do, so we felt alright with this "sudden" decision. He had a list of reasons why he decided to do this and we were pleased and proud that he was thinking about his future and how to get where he wanted to be in life.

He has been in for nearly 18 mos. and loves it. Except for Basic Training, which he hated. He says it's the best thing he ever did and the only part that is bad is being separated from friends and family. We try to keep in touch with him as much as possible and are going to see him in a couple weeks. He's been in school for a long time and is very excited that he'll finally be joining his ship in January, looking forward to more knew and exciting adventures.

[sharon mcanally]

When my son graduated high school, I told him he needed to get a job...... came home from work one day and my son informed he had a job I thought maybe burger king a local factory, NO, I ve joined the navy mom, No you didnt, yes I did No you didnt, yes I did I leave in august. HE DID and I couldnt be more proud of him

[Margaret...military mom]

My son Joseph called me from the recruiting office to share his news. I was not shocked of his service to his country, just the choice of field. He has and will always be a true aviation buff, yet he told me he qualified for Nuclear reactor school and was going to be on submarines. Imagine my surprise. During his time in Chicago for boot camp, we got a call from the doctors that they would need to do surgery on my son. I asked when and do I have enough time to fly there. Needless to say, I was informed that they were starting surgery in days, and I was not able to be there. As a mom, everyone agrees; when you child is hurting ; you want to be there to comfort them. It was the hardest day of my life at that time, waiting by the phone to hear he was out of surgery, in recovery and doing well. It has been seven years since that day, and he has done so well and acheived so much during his time serving on submarines and now teaching for Nuclear Reactor operators.Joseph was just selected for Chief. Very proud. As I mentione earlier, waiting for doctors to call for Joseph surgery was at that time the hardest day of my life until April of this year when I got a call that my other son serving in the Army was wounded in Iraq. 3 greates words a mother could hear, "he is alive", wounded but alive. I am very proud of both of my sons. Very very proud.

[Proud Navy Mom Sue]

My son decided his senior year to go into the Navy. I was not very impressed with his recruiter and neither was my son. He waited and then when he was out of school almost 1 year-he decided this was what he wanted. My Dad had been in the Navy and he is very close to Grandpa. He had the recruiter come to the house and talk with us and I was very impressed with this one. He kept asking me how I was feeling about my son's decision. I knew in my heart this was making him very happy and I had to support him. He is my only child and we are very close. He is in boot camp now and will be a Hospital Corpsman. I am very proud of his decision and know that God will take care of him.

[Kristine {Alan's mom}]

I will forever remember the date of 10/9/08. That is the day my son called me (at work! ) and told me he had enlisted. My initial response was "WHAT?!, WHERE ARE YOU?" I shouldn't have been surprised, though. He has been talking about being in the military since he was 15. I guess I knew he was "safe" at that time because he was not old enough to join. I was also in denial and hoping he'd change his mind and maybe find something else that he was interested in, which he did for a little while. (being in a rock band and wanting to open a recording studio.) He is now scheduled to leave for BC at GL in June '09, then to A school for Master at Arms.
After the initial shock wore off and the sobbing ceased(for the moment), I am very proud of the responsible decision he has made. I can also say that I am impressed with him that he is thinking of the "big picture" for his life.

[Beth proud mom of Garrett]

This is an older forum... just found it and smiled as I read the posts. My son excelled in high school - only if he liked the subject or the teacher! He did 2 years of community college and worked at a pretty basic job. He was bored out of his mind. He is extremely logical, analytical, competitive to a degree. He was wasting his talents.... He went with his dad to talk to recruiters from all the military branches and decided on the Navy. If he had been of age during the aftermath of 9-11, he would have enlisted then. I think the patriotic call has always been there for him and now he's almost 2 years in and loving the Navy. If you read between the lines, you don't get the sense of drama or concern. What caused me a little panic was that he wanted to be a rescue swimmer. He is so slender. I couldn't imagine he'd make it. I saw him swimming in the pool months before he joined! He had the ugliest, most inefficient stroke. He could barely keep his head above water. He qualified for just about everything due to his high ASVAB score. I was pushing him to go nuke - sounded like a good challenge. Mental. He could do that. Well, he proved himself to be a great swimmer. He did all his buddy tows with his friend who is one foot taller and outweighs him by about 75 pounts. I was so humbled by his success. I will never doubt the man again. Now I'm faced with another child who wants to join.... My daughter is 3 semesters away from her undergraduate degree. She is signing in 2 weeks to attend the Marines OCS the summer after graduation. I doubted one child. I can't undermine her decision. We'll see how this goes. Like her brother, she is going to be physically challenged, but with her sense of determination... she'll make it. Beth, proud to have two wonderful children

[Dawn ~Joseph's Mom]

I never thought my son would ever consider joining... he'd always been set on K-state. He'd throw everthing away that came from the military. I have a brother who served in Vietnam and an Uncle that was Navy. (my son never knew him) and my niece was married to a Marine, which we lost in Iraq two years ago. So I'm not anti-military at all. I'm proud of all thier service. I just never thought it'd be THIS son. My oldest considered it a few years back, but never did join. So I was surprized to say the least when I got home one night from work and this is the conversation.
Son: I found a way to pay for college?
me: escort service, gigaloo, what are you thinking?
Son: I'm gonna join the Navy!
me: NO WAY!, We'll find another way to pay for it. You want to go to K-state that's where you'll go.
Son: nope, I'm going to talk to them tomorrow.
me to hubby: what the *ell have you been talking to him about?
hubby: I was surprized too, I didn't do it.

Well he signed up all with in 10 days. Here's my scrapebook page:

[Hillary]

Im actually a kid on here, but I remember telling my parents that I was thinking about it. They kept hearing me talk about it every now and then and we struggled to get along when it came time to figure out what I was going to do. I graduated young, at 17. So finally I enrolled into the technical college in our area and started my first semester in college. I realized my very first day that it sooo wasnt for me so I thought on it for that whole first semester and decided to tell my parents that I wasnt going to make it through 4 years of this. I told my dad first and he told me to think about it some more and be SURE and I did more and more research, and finally brought it up to my mom. She was obviously upset that I chose this but she learned more about it and got more information. She has been a great help and im so pleased that she jumped on board. It obviously took a little bit to get her to be ok with it, but its nice now, to be able to talk to her about it and our relationship not get strained.

I know my mom is not happy that im leaving, but she is taking it like a champ, and with the help of you strong ladies, I know she will pull through and be happy about my choice.

[Joanne Kane]

When my son first came home and told us he was joining the Navy we thought he was joking. Matt has a twin sister and although they have different friends and different goals in life, I always envisioned them together. I really did not believe that my son would leave the good life. The one where his mother does his laundry, cooks his meals, gets him up for work and all the other good stuff that moms do. It seemed like the DEP program took forever. At first they thought that he had a medical issue which we fought and had proved wrong. His friends tried to talk him out of it, but he was set on going. He graduated Friday March 20th and I can't begin to express the proud feeling that my husband, myself, his older brother Mike or his twin Jessica felt sitting in those bleachers. The boy I sent to boot camp is not the young man that I saw graduate, it was amazing the changes that I saw in him after a few shorts weeks. My son was in Div. 134 Great Lakes and I am extremely proud of him and all of his accomplishments. God Bless him and all who serve us proudly.

[gmotm2008]

This may get a little long...Bubba(Mark) took his ASVAB during his senior year in high school, I knew he would be going into the Army (yes, I'm on the right web-site) when he graduated. He didn't graduate, he failed 2 key classes and needed to repeat it. At his school there is a program that lets you take the class(s) you need to graduate at your own pace as long as you have a certain number of credits to begin with. This allows the child to get it done as quickly as they are able. He got it done in two months and the recruiter was able to secure his MOS (job) the same as his sisters. Imagery analyst with a $17,000 bonus (his sister was livid-her bonus for the same job a year and a half earlier was only $5,000). they talked about winding up at the same base and sharing an apartment so they could take care of each other and Monica's little daughter. I was proud of his decision, My grandfather was Army, my dad was Army, I was Army and I married Army, our eldest son was Army and Bubba's only sister was army. After a few tears at his goinng away party and spending the next day at the paint-ball park, I tucked him in spoke a few wise words and prepared for my son to leave the next day. He proceeded to have what I would call a full blown panic attack (I found out it wasn't) He couldn't go into the Army, It had to be the Navy. I found out that his buddy had laid a pretty thick layer of guilt on Bubba for leaving him behind, knowing that he(the buddy) wouldn't be able to get through basic training without his(Bubba's) support. The next morning he met with his Army recruiter and went to MEPS to face the music. He faced it like a man and clearly stated that itwas not the recruiters fault-good, because he had an outstanding recruiter- and that he was not trying to get out of serving, he only wanted to change to the Navy. This was allowed and two weeks later he was in, and his buddy is still sitting home on his butt and has not retaken his ASVAB (which he previously failed). Oh, and the bonus that he was counting on to buy a car...gone. He did get one, but miniscule by comparison. He's finished boot and A-school, and is now at Kunia. He loves Hawaii and was just accepted for 3 months of color guard. He's talking about putting in for a temporary reassignment after the colorguard assignment, to a Military Intelligence unit headed to Iraq. He's not sure if it can happen, but he says he wants to try so he can be there with his sister on her second year+ of deployment. He is some kid. I'm very proud of him. I just wish I knew about the Navy what i do about the Army. Thanks for all the support.

[nikosmom]

My son has always voiced wanting to join the Navy. Even as far back as freshman year in high school, his plans after graduation were to join. Next year he will be a senior and he has a scheduled date of 8/10 to take his ASVAB and go to MEPS the next day. He's also had 3 years of JROTC (Air Force) so this did not come as a surprise. His grandfather and his dad were both AW's and Nicholas has always looked at my husbands flight pictures and dreamed of being on a P-3. I'm also a veteran of 6 years as a Corpsman. The Navy is in his blood. We even tried to get him to look into other services but after talking with the Coast Guard and researching the Marine Corp, he was still firm on the Navy. This has always been his choice. We have never encouraged or discouraged military service. I was so impressed with him today when the recruiters stopped by our house and he really showed maturity. For some, college right out of high school is the answer but for some like my son, they need the structure that only the military can provide. I'm just as proud of him joining as I would be if he told me he was going to MU (go Mizzou tigers!). We're taking each step as it comes and educating him as well as ourselves on today's Navy. A lot has changed since I went to boot camp. He's really excited to join.