His motivation

In case you don't know my husband well I will fill you in on a bit of his life and his dreams. Since he was old enough to show a preference to toys or themes for toys he has shown a strong interest in the military. From playing religiously with G.I. Joes, to begging his mom to read to him about military and military equipment from the encyclopedia...the interest has always been there! I think he always expected to graduate from college and begin a career in the military, a lifetime career in the military. When college wasn't going so well for him he decided to go ahead and enlist as a reservist to both take some time off and get someone other than his parents to pay for the remainder of college. He chose the Marine Corps for his career path. I remember him being so excited and so proud of this decision! He lived and breathed this decision from the second he made it (he did a lot of research and soul searching before he settled on a military branch) until the second things changed.

On the evening he reported to his assigned hotel room for his testing the following morning he was anxious and excited. I talked to him several times that evening and the following morning. He woke up, when they woke him, and he reported to his aptitude test (not sure if that's the right name, but you get the idea) and totally kicked butt on it! His recruiter told us his was the highest score their office had ever turned in! They were stoked to have someone so intelligent and wanted to get him started right away! They told him he would report to boot camp in a few days, instead of a couple of months like they had previously agreed upon. Needless to say that change made him REALLY nervous. They gave him this piece of information as he was proceeding to his physical exam! They started the exam with blood pressure testing. I'm sure you can guess it was off the charts! They kept testing it and it remained high as he was becoming increasingly nervous about the change of date and the fact that his blood pressure was high. They turned him away based on the blood pressure readings! What a loss for the USMC, but what a blessing for me!

This was spring of 1997! Can you just imagine how much his life would have changed being a reservist in the USMC post 911? Wow! The lord works in mysterious ways!

Greg's never really gotten over this urge to have a career in the military, I think he's always felt like this was missing. Now that he's too old to enlist in the United States Armed Forces he found the Texas State Guard; they have completely different requirements :)

Just this week we were watching an old movie TAPS (I think that's the name of it) with Tom Cruise, Sean Penn, and many other now famous actors. The movie is about a military academy and the young men who attend it. During the movie Greg made the comment to me that he should have gone to a military academy and said it kind of longingly. Obviously he is glad he didn't go to one and had the chance to grow up with his sisters and all the friends instead, but it is evidence of a strong calling he has to the military.