Posted on 08/29/2005 7:37:15 AM PDT by Sailor6468
I was born to be a soldier. Not that I was particularly brave or even destined for a distinguished military career, but I think there is something inherent in most Southern boys that predisposes them to the profession of arms. I simply got a bigger dose of it than most.
(Excerpt) Read more at reportingwar.com ...
Good article - and pretty true - I always considered myself to have been brought up "in the Hall of Heros." I'm named for Robert E. Lee, and John Paul Jones. Kind of hard to avoid going into the service after that.
And the country should be damn glad it does.
So much of this rings true for me.
I remember as a young lad growing up in the early '80s in North Carolina and Virginia, reading my first book about the Civil War. I soon had a portrait of General Lee on the wall of my bedroom (ironically enough, right next to the model of the orange, four-wheeled General Lee). I spent literally days tromping through the woods pretending to be either a colonial, or a Confederate, or a soldier in Patton's Third Army, or a soldier in Viet Nam. I absolutely idolized (and still do) my father, who served in Korea. My older brother joined the Navy and was added to my list of personal heroes.
I can't imagine having NOT been in the military. I honestly can't imagine what else I would've done with my life.
Let's not leave out the young men who grew up hearing about their relative's heroic service in WW II. They didn't all grow up to be drugged out boomers.
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I was to be a third-generation Marine, and a graduate of Annapolis at that. A greater power decided that a minor heart condition was to break that pattern in my family.
My family has military roots going back to the Second Revolution (where some of my Kentucky relatives fought with Johnston, among others). I think what has always attracted us to fighting is the license to make lots of racket with firearms. What Southern boy doesn't like to raise a ruckus with a shotgun or pistol?
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