Dedicated to Those Who Serve

This Thursday, October 25th, my son, Sgt. Nick Marshall will be honorably discharged from the United States Army after five and a half years of continuous and honorable duty. It’s been a long haul for him and all those who love and support our son.

He has represented his Country, Baytown, his family and his friends well. He is every parent’s son or daughter, who left home with little real direction, but comes home experienced, mature and full of positive goals.

Like his father and both grandfathers and great grandfathers before him, aunts, uncles and cousins, Nick has endured long lonely extended periods away from the comforts of civilization as we know it. He’s been hot, cold, dirty, exhausted, mad, laughed uncontrollably, hungry, sleepy, determined and has shared the camaraderie only G.I.’s experience when war rages around them.

My Dad rode a motorcycle through the dirt and garbage-strewn streets of Egypt, throwing handfuls of small coins to the begging children of post-WWII Cairo, as an occupation forces Sailor. He admonished me, as a new USAF Airman to walk past the first bar I came to and see the country instead, which I did. He has been all over the world through his tour in the U.S. Navy and came home a productive citizen, to raise a family.

During the Vietnam War, I hung from the side of an over-crowded bus as it sped helter-skelter through the crowded roads around Takhli, Thailand; one foot on the door step and one foot hanging out in open space. The only thing between me and the ditch was one hand on an open window and bit of daring gusto. I was living large.

Nick drove or rode seventy long and dangerous missions through the IED-laden roads of the Sunni Triangle, covered in bone-tingling sweat, adrenaline, Kevlar, Copenhagen snuff and Redbull energy drinks…and suffered wounds from one of many explosions that blew hot fire and smoke on his vehicle (I later learned).

He, like so many brave and selfless soldiers and Marines, put their Country ahead of their own goals and faced the dangers inherent in that calling.

Our stories are just a handful of what millions of American men and women have endured and experienced over our Country’s short history. The military has been the platform for adventure and escape, new beginnings and sadly, tragedy and grief. For my Dad, I and so many others, the military afforded us a lifetime of great memories and adventure, mixed in with the discomforts. For Nick and others who experienced combat, maybe some good will perchance come of it and if the memories of the ugliness of war resurface, hopefully they will come to terms with it.

I especially pray for the family and friends of PFC Wesley Riggs and others who lost loved ones to the horrors of war. Their memories of the military experience are forever overshadowed with the loss of their loved ones. Their loved ones did not die in vain.

My son, like so many other young men and women who join the Armed Services, has grown up. His five and a half years of extreme living will benefit him in the game of life, in ways he has yet to realize. The year he spent in South Korea with its ice cold winters and drab weather will all be worth it later in life, as he exhibits patience beyond what is normal for his peer group. He told me one time that Korea was so bad that “even the Koreans are trying to leave”.

When someone on college campus complains of how this isn’t what they deserve, Nick can look back at the more than 600 hours of night escort duty he pulled in the deserts of Kuwait and chuckle.

The two bitter winters I spent in central Montana, walking the half mile to work each morning, because all the cars were too frozen to start, have helped me to shrug off minor discomforts in later life. The tropical heat and voracious insects of Central Thailand have hardened me against “little” bugs we have in Texas and our heat? It’s not bad at all, trust me.

The extreme poverty my Dad experienced first hand in the Mediterranean region after World War Two, have served him well over his life, as he put simple living ahead of gathering worldly goods. He always took his family to see nature, through hiking, fishing and camping, instead of man-made recreation. I didn’t understand it as a kid, but as an adult I realized what treasures we experienced instead of the pre-canned fodder other kids relate to.

So, if that son or daughter suddenly makes up their mind to forgo college and enlist, hope and pray for them – they might just be on a road to maturity that is the best life can offer.