i thought about the army

"well i thought about the army, dad said son you're f-cking high"

I don't know what I think about the services drawing as heavily as they do from poverty for recruits. Some consider it a form of conscription. Others see it as a great opportunity offered to those who have few others, with a strong dose of discipline being among the most important aspects. Do recruiters lie to these kids? I don't know. Do the kids leave recruiters' offices with a skewed conception of reality that is not corrected by recruiters? Yes.

Mr. G, I'm leaving for the guard in a couple of weeks.

Coach, I was thinking about joining the marines.

Well, at first they had assigned me to artillery, but then they put me in transport.

Coach, I'm gonna be all I can be.

I just know I don't want my kids to join up. I don't want my kids to be on the other end of an AK or an IED. Transport, to me, means roadside bombs. Marines means all the dignity of a military funeral.

Maybe I'd feel differently if I supported the war, or the idea of war, or patriotism, but I don't think I would. Those are questions for men to decide, not boys, and these are my boys. I know that they're almost men, and some of them have already gone through much more than I had before I was of legal age to enlist.

Maybe I'd feel differently if the kids who planned on enlisting were kids who could really benefit from it. When KM told me he was joining the guard, I was not upset. The kid needed the discipline, and he didn't have anything else. Nothing. He had such a strong personality about him, he could have gone through the military, gotten something out of it, and used that to forward himself. WE probably made the right decision too, although I didn't know him as well. But NB and DJ? Fantastic kids, never a behavior problem, probably not a referral between them in 4 years of high school, varsity athletes, (DJ 3 sports), supportive mothers. DJ has a 3.5 GPA. And he wants to go into the army?

I'm not going to stay in Mississippi forever, and once I leave, I don't want to be coming back for any military funerals.