You’ve all seen the photos I posted before when my youngest grandson, Angus, was in a brief training with the Navy a few months back as a senior at the University of South Carolina and had the opportunity to sit in the pilot’s seat and fly over Niagara Falls.
It was his thrill of that experience that put that broad smile on his face. Or the other time, when he met with Sailors in front of that helicopter on another training mission.
Angus gets commissioned in May, the second in the family to become a Naval officer and this was the week each of those soon-to-be officers in Carolina got to know whether they were accepted into their field of choice after commissioning.
Of course Angus’ field was aviation, which you’d know from his smiles in these photos and we are all thrilled to know that’s what he got! So after commissioning, it will be Pensacola for more education and experience.
So with his mom Tracie a retired Navy diver, and he now wanting to protect the nation from the air, be it rotary or fixed wing, it’s a good thing Chris his dad was a yeoman and protected us between sky and ocean depth!
Couple that with my two Marine children who served both here and abroad, a grandson another Navy veteran, and now a great grandson James who’s excelling in NJROTC and is a terrific volunteer on BB62, the New Jersey battleship museum in Camden, you bet I’m proud of the military service my family has given.
The patriarch of the group, Jimmy, who served in the Army during the Korean war, is duly proud in heaven as well. Me? Heck, I’m just so proud and happy I bred them all!
And while they are not my children, I am also so proud of the Color Guard from MAST who have been given the honor of being the color guard next month when the newest submarine, the New Jersey, is christened in Newport News, Va. I’m proud of these young cadets, not only because they all live up to the excellence demanded of them by their chief naval officer at MAST, that retired Navy Commander daughter of mine, but because each of those cadets has worked so hard, done so much, achieved so much and excelled in their annual inspection last week, carrying the burdens of hard work and stress with maturity beyond their years.
