The kid climbed in the cab for his hotel at 5:06 PM. We had an extra hour with him in the recruiter's office. It was enjoyable to spend an hour with a young recruiter, our son and four other young people.

Listening to their comments and plans for the future. Maybe, just maybe, our country is not as screwed as I fear that it is.

The recruiter ~25 just finished his 5th year in the service, is finishing up his bachelor's degree in marketing, is planning on staying in until he hits 20yrs, then retire and go private sector. I am very impressed with this young man.

What was interesting is how even these young people who are motivated enough to serve their country have characteristics of their everyone gets a trophy, entitlement generation.

One of the young men (out of three) was ranting about how his dad has been working for the YMCA for 20 years and has had his pay reduced repeatedly over the years while new college grads who know little of what his dad knows get hired frequently at much higher wages than his father.

I made comment "and that is the prime example of the value of an education. It is not fair but many employers recognize that and education requires a person to make a plan, commit to the plan and complete the plan and that an education usually teaches effective problem solving". That kid was cranky about my comment. This kid was 21 and was in with his BFF to discuss enlisting. He was cocky, not well informed about any of the topics of discussion over the course of the hour and I was not particularly impressed with him.

His BFF just finished tech school and is on a 4wk temp assignment to help the recruiter. That young man is 20 with a young child and will be getting married next week. Then he is off to a finance assignment in Okinawa. That young man was energetic had a clear understanding of his abilities and weaknesses and I was impressed with him.

A third young man just got back from a test that he failed due to a cramp in his leg. He wants special forces and has to pass the test to qualify. He must qualify before he reports for basic. He was told that since he missed due to a cramp and was only 4 push-ups short of qualifying that today would be logged as a training session and he has two more weeks to demonstrate passing before his "real" test. He is ~23 and a sharp young guy.

A young lady came in to speak with the recruiter. She is in her third semester of "engineering". The recruiter introduced her to me since he and I have spoken several times and he knows that I am engineer. I asked the young lady what field of engineering she is studying. I got a blank stare. She had no idea what the fields of engineering are. She answered "Technical?" WTF! :? This reminds me of my SIL who has been in college for 7 years and still does not know the difference between an Associates, Bachelors, Masters and Ph.D degree. How do these kids "study" something for a year or more, spend years in an environment and not know the basic discussion points of what they have been doing or the environment they have been in?

My son was excited and ready to go. He jumped out of the car when we got the recruiters office and gave us a hug, said "I love you", shook his recruiter's hand and bolted for the cab.

The kid is really gone.

Now his mom and I have to figure out the rest of our lives together.

This ought to be fun! :?