When our son, Ethan, enlisted in the army a little more than a year ago, we were quite sure that a lot of positive things would come from his five years in the military – it would give him training, purpose, and skills, not to mention a steady paycheck, help [...]
Our son Ethan, who turned 25 at the end of last month, is home visiting us for a week. It happens that it was exactly a year ago this week that he signed papers to join the army. He was excited and energized, and more than a little nervous about [...]
When Ethan was in college, we often didn’t see him for months and it really wasn’t a big deal. We were quite sure that he would look and act the same as when we last saw him; the Cinema Studies department at SFSU isn’t known for producing dramatic changes in [...]
When our son Ethan was in his late teens and still living at home, starting at about 11pm, he would disengage from his computer, wander out to the kitchen and start talking. Of course at this time of night, I was ready to call it a day and head off [...]
I was unloading groceries from the car on Saturday afternoon when Jennifer Lynn came out and told me to come into the house quickly because Ethan was on the phone. When you get a call from your son in basic training there’s no “the ice cream is going to melt [...]
Last Thursday was a red letter day for us because we received two letters from Ethan…although the letters were actually more desert camo color than red. Ethan is in his fourth week of army basic training at Ft. Jackson in South Carolina. Ethan wrote one of the letters on Sunday. [...]
After not hearing from Ethan since he left for basic training in South Carolina more than a month ago, we got our first letter from him last week. I loved that it was written on camo stationery. But it’s a good thing that drill sergeants don’t inspect the letters sent [...]
I knew that the army had contacted the character references who Ethan had listed on his enlistment application but I was surprised to get a call last week from a man who identified himself as a “special investigator retained by the US office of personnel management.” He went onto say [...]
As of Saturday, Ethan was two weeks into basic training and we hadn’t gotten any letters from him. We had been told by parents of other soldiers that the drill sergeants make the recruits write to their families. We knew that getting a phone call from him was unlikely until [...]
It’s been one week since Ethan began basic combat training and we haven’t heard from him. We didn’t really expect a phone call because the “Guide for Future Soldiers and Their Families” said that in BCT “phone calls are for emergencies only.” But then the next line seems [...]