My boy is coming home

[kfisbusy]

I am so confused this morning. My son left for boot camp on June 15. This week began his fourth week. He called me last night to let me know that medical is sending him home. He didn't want to talk about why so I don't know what happened. I thought that if they got hurt they were sent to MRP. Why would thay automatically send him home?

I asked if he could go back or if he even wanted to go back and he said no. I'm not sure which question that was in answer to but I think it wathat he doesn't want to go back. If he got hurt would he have a choice to come home?

I am also confused on this dael I also was thinking that they were sent to MRP. unless he was hurt worse than he is telling at this time I hope that he is not hurt to bad. Today they have chaged alot so I wish I had a answer for you .

[kfisbusy]

I have benn hearing that Jane Fonda is up to her f...ing s... with our men & women comeing home. I wish that this ***** would just go to hell. this is from a vitnam vet. I do not know what she thinks of Her Dad because He was doing the same job that we all have done.

[LHMHMOM]

Well, we picked my boy up at the airport on Thursday night and he is great. He is so happy to be home with us. He is a little unhappy about the way some things happened but he isn't talking down about the Marines which I am very happy about. It has been such a hugh part of his life for the past year that I would hate for him to have bad feelings about it. He is going to talk to the recruiters next week but at this point says that he won't reenlist. We will see.

He want's to enroll in college but doesn't know what for yet so he will probably start out with basics. As for his credit, he has a truck but it's a single cab and he wants someting bigger. My parents have a truck that they offered to sell him and it's very nice. They offered to let him make payments to them so that he wouldn't have to make a loan. We also have a much older truck that needs work that we offered him. It's not nearly as nice and isn't ready for him to jump into and take off so I thought he might take the nicer one. He is taking the older truck so that he won't have a note. Very good decision.

There is a lot more to the story than what I originally thought. Maybe more than I will ever know but that's okay. He's home and he's fine. He wants to have the medical issue taken care of. I'm glad so that if he decides to in two years it will already be done. It's something that is probably genetic because their father had the same issue. I intend to have my younger son checked out as well so that if it's an issue we can take care of it now in case he decides to enlist when he is old enough.

I can't thank you all enough for being there for me through this last couple of weeks. Unless you have been there you can't imagine how much it helps to have people like you to lean on.

[Rocky C]

Semper Fi Mom, well said. Glad you are all ok. Please give your Son our Best.
Rocky

[LHMHMOM]

Thanks Rocky. I will definately tell him.

[IDontWheeze]

LHMHMOM, I've been following this post from the get go because I was in a similar situation to your sons in 2001. I only wish my mother gave me the same kind of support that you have given your son. As some of the Marines have said, your son deserves credit and respect for stepping on the yellow footprints and trying to earn the title of United States Marine. I never made it through MEPS, and in fact, my mother did not help my situation, but made it worse by actually helping to get me DQ'd. Please tell your son that there are plenty of people like myself who would have given anything just to be given a shot at the title, and that there are plenty of people like me who have nothing but admiration for the people who sign the dotted line and take that chance - no matter what the outcome is. There is nothing he can do about a medical condition. It is out of his hands. He has to make peace with himself knowing that he gave it his best shot - which is more than 95% of the population can say. This might sound silly to some of the Marines on this site, but it took me a long time to come to peace with myself after being rejected. I was 20 yrs old when I watched the planes hit the towers, it was very hard for me to watch my friends enlist and answer our generations call to protect America, but having to sit on the sideline myself due to asthma that hadn't bothered me in years. Please continue to be supportive of your son, and remind him that he can get another chance in 2 yrs. if he plays his cards right. I only wish that I was more informed back then, and could have tried for a waiver or some other way to get in, rather than doing the tailspin that I did for a few years after having my dreams crushed. I wish you and your family the best of luck, and from what I've read, it sounds like you are a strong family that will circle the wagons and pull through this.

[LHMHMOM]

Thank you IDontWheeze. My son seems to be doing very well and is happy with the outcome. It just was not his time. Maybe in the future he will decide to try again but whatever his decision, that will be fine with me.

I know that I don't know much about your situation but please don't be too hard on your mom. It's very difficult for us to be supportive when we know our children are putting themselves in a position of danger. I imagine it was even more difficult for her because of the position our country was in during the time you were enlisting and because it doesn't sound like you and she had this website as a support system. I'm not saying what she did was ok, we have to learn to let our chilren make their own decisions and try to be supportive even if we don't agree. But I do understand how she must have felt.

I admire you for having the courage to enlist at such a difficult time and without the support of your family. It must have been a very hard decision for you to make and then even harder not be able to fulfill your dream. Sometimes God has a way of knocking us in the head and saying "Your not listening to me, this is not what you are supposed to do!!" That's what I told my son and that may apply to you as well.

[IDontWheeze]

Thank you very much for the kind words Ma'am. I hope I did not give you the impression that my mother/family does not support the military. That is definately not the case, and my family is very much supportive of all the armed services. I have some family members that have served in the Marine Corps, and my Grandfather was actually one of the Frozen Chosun in Korea.

Without getting into too much detail and hijacking your forum, I had childhood asthma. When enlisting, I didn't want to lie to my recruiter(s) and told him everything. My recruiter said he could work with me, but when they came to meet my family my mother sat down with them and voiced her concerns that I probably shouldn't be serving with my "condition" possibly returning. I also kept an inhaler during my HS years, but it just sat in the medicine cabinet, and I never used it. I don't even know why I had it, and I never realized the problems it would cause me down the road. After hearing from her, the recruiters told me that I was medically uneligable and that was that. I never persuied it further, and never knew there where other avenues I could have taken (waivers, etc.) to get in until I read some forums on this site. I just felt sorry for myself which was only counter-productive.

Being a parent now, I think that I understand my mother was instinctively trying to protect me, but I've just always felt like I never did my part, and I left the dirty work to others. For all I know maybe I would have dropped dead from an asthma attack during a sandstorm - I highly doubt it, but you never know. Again, I wish your family the best of luck dealing with your situation.

[LHMHMOM]

It sounds like things are good with your family now and I am happy for you. I know if I had said anything, intentionally or not, to hinder my sons chances of joining he would have been very angry with me. Not being from a military family, we didn't know what to expect when the recruiters came to visit. I told them all kind of stuff. They very well could have had the same reaction that your recruiter did but they didn't.

That is one of the great things about forums like this. There is so much information for those who don't have the knowledge. Sometimes recruiters tell you to lie or not to disclose some things. I consider my sons recruiters to be wonderful recruiters but they did tell him not to tell some things when he went to MEPS. Those who know about this site have a place to come and say hey, here is what my recruiter told me, what do I do about it. From what I have read some recruiters aren't willing to put out extra effort for waivers etc. if they don't have to. Especially in good times like now when they have more people wanting to join than they can handle.

Having said that, we love all of the recruiters in our area and want to keep in contact with them. We spent a lot of time with them this last year and it has been very emotional for me, not only being concerned about my son but also the possibility of losing the bonds that we have made.