Nathan and the Military

Today we had a visit from the recruiters with the Army.  My son Nathan will be 18 on Christmas Day and has talked about being in the military since he was very young being raised by a Marine and having a Grandfather that was a Marine besides other family members that have been Marine's. This is very tough for a mother especially in this day and age you don't thing the day will ever actually come but here it is. My heart and prayers go out to all the mother's who have suffered the ultimate loss and I have to say I am selfish and don't want to take the chance at the same loss. On the other hand you have to be proud of what your child wants to do and be honorable he has to grow up and make his own choices and this is something he has talked about since he was a youngster. I have to give him credit that he went to all the services to see what they have to offer and didn't just sign up for the first service he walked in the door to.  He has not signed up yet because he cannot at this point he has to graduate first so I still have time before I may have to face this. I also have to say the Army has a lot to offer my son for the type of career he wants and the collage benefits are unbeatable. There is a lot of good with joining the Army accept all of mom's worries but I do believe this is the best choice for him. Nathan just has this Marine thing going on because of what other family members choices were I have had to talk to him that he needs to do what is best for him and not follow in anyone's footsteps. Another concern is that we are not sure how Joshua will handle this. Joshua is very close to Nathan and he knows what could happen and we have already had a problem after he discussed this with Nathan. We also don't know how we are going to handle this because Nathan is really good with Joshua and helps us a lot but like my husband said Nathan has to live his life and we will take care of Joshua.