The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

My Wife Is a Soldier’s Mom

Posted on | May 12, 2013 | 25 Comments

Today was Mother’s Day, and I realized I never got around to posting the photos of my Army son’s graduation from Infantry School. My wife cried, she was so proud of him. Here he is, wearing the infantry “blue cord,” with his favorite drill sergeant:

It was nice to see the boy all grown up and, despite all that training, still cocky as ever. Here he is during his 72-hour pass in Columbus:

Not much question where he gets the good looks, is there?

So now our son’s in Airborne school, and Monday will be his first jump. Paratroopers are divided up into “chalks” of 30 men, and the Number 15 man in the chalk is the first to jump. Hooah!

Mother’s Day is, by custom, also the final day of National Offend a Feminist Week, which Mr. G. celebrates with an entirely appropriate declaration: “Now go get me a beer.”

 

Category: Military, Mrs. Other McCain, National Offend a Feminist Week

Comments

25 Responses to “My Wife Is a Soldier’s Mom”

  1. Adobe_Walls
    May 12th, 2013 @ 11:57 pm

    Your pride is well justified.

  2. Adjoran
    May 13th, 2013 @ 12:08 am

    Good looking straight-backed soldier there! You and his Mom are justly proud of him, as are we all.

    Please thank him for his service and wish him Godspeed from me and all of us comments-dwellers, and thank his mother for lending him to protect us – and also for mostly keeping you out of trouble.

  3. ChandlersGhost
    May 13th, 2013 @ 12:50 am

    God bless you and your family. And congratulations to your son.

  4. richard mcenroe
    May 13th, 2013 @ 12:51 am

    So was his favorite drill sergeant a barker or one of the REALLY scary quiet ones?

  5. robertstacymccain
    May 13th, 2013 @ 1:02 am

    Good moms and good drill sergeants have a lot in common. Keeping a McCain out of trouble is a hard job, either way.

  6. TC_LeatherPenguin
    May 13th, 2013 @ 3:27 am

    Hooh. Farkin’. RAH!

  7. Kevin Trainor Jr.
    May 13th, 2013 @ 5:12 am

    Kevin Trainor Jr. liked this on Facebook.

  8. Quartermaster
    May 13th, 2013 @ 6:47 am

    I see a new trooper gets two Geedunk ribbons these days. It was just one in ’72.

    Congrats to the new trooper. Have a safe jump school.

  9. Rosalie
    May 13th, 2013 @ 8:46 am

    Great photos. When I was watching “The Best Years of Our Lives” on TCM, I kept thinking that you look a little like Fredric March. In your photo, you look a lot like him.

  10. Jackie Wellfonder
    May 13th, 2013 @ 9:07 am

    Awesome!

  11. Mike G.
    May 13th, 2013 @ 9:49 am

    Good on your son. Thanks for his service. And thanks for the link.

  12. Mike G.
    May 13th, 2013 @ 9:51 am

    Funny how they do that. One DI will be a real rip-snorter while the other will be the quiet one…until you piss him off, then he will make the first DI look like a Mother spoiling her child.

  13. ChelieinTX
    May 13th, 2013 @ 10:20 am

    How’d you manage such a good-looking son?

  14. Bob Belvedere
    May 13th, 2013 @ 10:22 am

    God Bless the Scots-Irish…and the Moms who raise them.

    With men like Bob in our military, we stand a chance of surviving these Dark Times.

  15. richard mcenroe
    May 13th, 2013 @ 1:04 pm

    “WHAT DID I TELL YOU TRAINEE?!”
    “STATIC LINES ARE IMPORTANTT, JUMPMASTER!”
    “THAT IS CORRECT! NOW YOU _WILL_ FILL IN THR DENT YOU MADE IN MY DZ!”

  16. richard mcenroe
    May 13th, 2013 @ 3:04 pm

    I figured mine was quiet because he was just savoring what was about to happen to us. Funny thing, once it got to there point where we were sure to make it, he got surprisingly human.

    Most folks don’t realize that drill sergeant is one of the most demanding, highest-stress assignments in the Army.

  17. richard mcenroe
    May 13th, 2013 @ 3:05 pm

    (loosely based on a true story.)

  18. Dana
    May 13th, 2013 @ 7:48 pm

    BCT and AIT are murder on parents: we keep wanting to know what is going on with our kids, and we want to know now! Nothing but snail mail and maybe a five-minute phone call on some Sundays, even as recently as 2010.

  19. Delaney Coffer
    May 13th, 2013 @ 10:40 pm

    Dang! I can’t tell which of you he looks the most like. You all have those Eskimo eyes. Don’t mean that in a bad way at all. There’s just the shape and the little puff under. Makes it harder to discern from a screen.

    Anyway, Congrats!

  20. RantMan
    May 14th, 2013 @ 9:26 am

    Not much question where he gets the good looks, is there?

    His Mom.

  21. RantMan
    May 14th, 2013 @ 9:27 am

    He’s jumping outta planes? Whoa. O_o him got bigger ones than me….

  22. richard mcenroe
    May 14th, 2013 @ 3:02 pm

    I settled for sliding out helicopters out of a sense of fiscal responsibility. Just couldn’t bring myself to waste half an airplane ride the taxpayers had to pay for.

  23. cgable63
    May 15th, 2013 @ 7:51 am

    what a beautiful family! god bless your son, as well as you and your family. please thank your son for his service to this country. i truly appreciate it, as do many, many others. thank you for sharing.

  24. Steve T
    May 15th, 2013 @ 8:08 pm

    Video: Glenn Beck maps out how the 3 Scandals are inter-related (IRS, AP and Benghazi)

    http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2013/05/video-glenn-beck-maps-out-how-scandals.html

  25. One More Jump … : The Other McCain
    May 16th, 2013 @ 8:07 am

    […] May 12: My Wife Is a Soldier’s Mom […]