August 19, 2024 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Bob McLalan, a listener and regular contributor, reflects on the moment his son decided to go to military school, revealing the polarizing goals of parents to both protect their children but also prepare them to make their own decisions.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
And we talk about everything here on this show, from
the arts to sports, from history to business and everything
in between.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
And we love hearing your stories.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Send them and we'll take a few of them, take
many of them if possible, and turn them into stories
right here on the show, and put them up on
the satellite so you can hear them too.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
What we're doing here is special. I think you know it.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Share it with friends and anywhere you can talk up
what we're doing. We appreciate it, and so too does
your station. And now it's time for the McLellan Files,
where we go deep inside the life of Bob McClellan.
Some of that you don't know, but whose life and
whose voice you're certain to be captivated.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
By the dealings.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
While watching a movie with my wife in the family
room one evening, we were interrupted by our sixteen year
old son, Tommy, who walked in and sat down with us. Politely,
He said he had something important he wanted to discuss
with us. As I turned off the TV, I quickly
imagined all the possibilities of something terrible, disastrous, or difficult
(01:21):
that could force a sixteen year old boy to sit
down to talk with his parents about anything important. My wife,
with her eyes wide open, sat silently while we all
got settled in to hear what he had to say.
I could not remember his approaching us like this before,
and my expectations, coupled with my imagination, made me feel
very uncomfortable. He began to tell us about a friend
(01:44):
whose cousin attended the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell,
New Mexico, for high school. That cousin is now captained
in the Green Berets, and his teaching math at West Point.
Tommy was very impressed by that and said he wanted
to go there for their two years of high school.
He talked about the academic standing of the school, the
(02:05):
numerous activities that were available, and the challenges he felt
the school would present him. As he spoke, I was
still unprepared for the ending of his story. Calmly and
ever so smoothly, he discussed his desire to attend such
a school and pursue a college education that no doubt
had a military career as.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Its ultimate destination.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
His mother countered with a gentle return to reason when
she said, you're going to a fine private high school
here in the Bay Area. Why would you want to
leave all of your friends? More straightforward questions came from me,
like are you unhappy? Oh, do you want drugs? He
said he was prepared to leave his friends as he
would make new ones at the school, and though it
(02:49):
was a military school, he was not enlisting and would
still be a high school student. He returned to talking
about the courses and activities offered by the school and
its academic reputation. He thought the disciplined and focus would
help him be more successful. It was obvious he had
done his homework, and it was evidence of how seriously.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
He took this idea.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Of leaving home, traveling and living at the school and
taking on a rigorous academic and physical regiment at sixteen
years of age, young though he may be, he had
reached a fork on the road in his life that
his mother and myself didn't see. We asked why would
he want to be going to a military institute that
sat out in the middle of the New Mexican Desert.
(03:33):
It was their reputation, he said. In their one year
cadet prep program, ninety seven percent go on to one
of the military academies. Out of a total of nine
hundred students, ninety went on to the military academies. He
thought that by doing well at NMI, he could pick
any college he wanted to attend, and, after graduation from college,
(03:55):
become an officer. I began to suspect that he was
poored living under the shady trees amidst a wealthy suburb
south of San Francisco. A bedroom community offers a little
excitement punching a time clock, working at a retail store,
or hanging around with your friends, playing with your fom
(04:17):
or living at home. There's a lotless adventurous and exciting
than traveling around with different places, living within a community
where thirty percent of the student body is international one
hundred percent or former military, and meeting the many challenges
that the military presents. We reminded him that home and
community are important for his development. They are nourishing, sustaining,
(04:38):
and necessary foundations for his life. But like bread, they
can often become stale. It wasn't love or nourishment that
was missing. He just needed more room to grow. Finally,
I just had to get to the point. I asked him,
what's this all about? I said, I got no problem
with the military, but why not do our in college?
(05:01):
If you want to go in the military, why do
you need to go down there and do this. There
was a moment of silence and a calm, self assured demeanor.
He looked at me, and without any doubt or hesitancy
in his voice, he said, Dad, I am not going
to go to Stanford Business School, and I'm not going
to go to Harvard, and I am not going to
(05:21):
spend the rest of my life working in an office.
I want to be a captain in the Green Berets.
I was speechless. There was nothing more I could say,
and at that point I was done.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
I was sold.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
He said he wanted to be an officer in the
Green Berets, work in special operations, and be fluent in Arabic.
He wanted to be a leader and not a follower.
GET heard from his friend's cousin that these men don't
need to find themselves.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
They do that every time they're.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Standing in a doorway getting ready to jump out of
a plane. I asked him, are you prepared to jump
out of a perfectly good airplane over Juria.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
His response was as simple, yes.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
I could see the look in his eyes were infused
with his youthful imagination and romanticism.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
But I knew he meant it. I understood how he felt.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
And though I thought it was a little early, I
reminded myself that, after all, it's just high school.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
He's not going off the war.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
I knew too that regardless of how far down this
path he goes, he will benefit from making this decision
and will learn a lot about himself in the process.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
This was his decision.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
He looked into his own insimpiate life and realizes that
he needed to find a different path to take him
to a different place. He didn't know where that place
was located, but his imagination convinced him that it existed.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
He just had to find it.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
And when we come back, more of this terrific story
from Bob McLelland. And by the way, if you have
a storytellerr in your that you know can just well
hop out stories, send his or.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Her information to us.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
We know there are great storytellers all over this great country.
More of the McClellan files after these messages. This is
(07:28):
Lee Habib, host of our American Stories. Every day we
set out to tell the stories of Americans past and present,
from small towns to big cities, and from all walks
of life doing extraordinary things.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
But we truly can't do this show without you. Our
shows are free to listen to, but they're not free
to make.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
If you love what you hear, go to our American
Stories dot com and make a donation to keep the
stories coming. That's our American Stories dot com. This is
(08:10):
Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories. And we
pick up we last left off with the McLelland files.
A young man, a boy having a dream in his head,
a vision in his head of leading a team overseas
in the Green beret and making that next important move
to go to military school. Let's pick up where we
last left off.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
As a parent, I learned eventually I could not really
direct my children's lives anymore.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Oh yeah, I could influence or coarsome, but I was
no longer the director.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
In this conversation with him that night, I realized I'd
become a spectator. I always believed as a father that
the best I could do was to prepare my children
to set their direction in life and be ready to
live with a success or failure of their choices. Now
have to honor that belief. Consequences exist in the world
(09:04):
of adults while children are protected from them. Families like
ours create barriers and boundaries and walls, trying to keep
out the grimmer and grimier aspects of society. But to
do that, we risk becoming in prison inside the walls,
holding on to the illusion that we are.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Safe and in control.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
We sent our children to private schools, put alarm systems
in our house, and we're careful about who we invited
into our home.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
But still we know that no one is safe.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
We picked their friends, picked their school and where they
can go. But at some point we can no longer
be there to make their decisions or supervise every activity, place,
or person that comes into their life. The point has
to come where either I release them or he just
jerks his.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Hand out of mind.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Troubles like drugs, teen suicides, mental illness, or just being
lost living at home with mom and dad have permeated
through the poorest walls of his school. He sees some
of his peers already making these dangers a lifestyle, and
it is one of the reasons why he wants to leave.
These dangers may be hidden among the many tomorrows of
(10:14):
his future. It was becoming apparent to me that Tommy
is not just running to someplace or running away from someplace.
I thought my wife and I would make all of
his decisions, but at some point I know we won't
be there to help him to manage these serious difficulties.
He needs many attributes to get him through, and resourcefulness
(10:37):
sits at the top of that list. Resourcefulness is an
attribute that is part of the military bedrock. Planning for
the unexpected, adapting to fluid situations, and working with limited
resources our integral parts of military training. Our natural instinct
at home is to nurture our children. It is our
(10:58):
duty as parents of being nurturing is not preparing them
to be self sufficient and independent. Eventually, the breast runs
dry and is incapable of providing nourishment for a man.
The appetite becomes too large when your son is six
feet tall and shade it without realizing it. Tommy's decision
(11:19):
is one that will help him develop the ability to
take care of himself. Wow, what a concept. Choosing for
oneself which side of the wall is right for you
is a decision we all have to make. Tommy chose
the risk of being on the outside rather than being
inside in the safety of the center. His confidence impressed
(11:40):
me as evidence of both his desire for independence and
self reliance. Regardless of the outcome, this is his choice.
If he gets down there and doesn't like taking seven
classes a day and training a one hundred degree heat
in the desert, then that's just too bad. As far
as I'm concerned, I am sure this experience will teach
him to be very select about what he chooses to
(12:01):
do in the future. He will certainly learn his limitations
down there, as well as his capabilities. Video games and
drugs and alcohol hold no lore or excitement for him.
At the NMI, he is not allowed to even have
a smartphone, and the internet access is controlled by the school.
It leaves all those attachments and appendages here at home.
(12:24):
There is no use for them at the school. They
will write letters instead and carry a flip phone. A
school seems to have a policy that I embrace. Less
is more. I told him that the door only swings
one way here and other than leave or come home
on vacations, don't come back until you finish. He said,
no problem, Dad. I told all my children when they
(12:47):
turn eighteen. Three doors will appear in their life, the
door to college, the door to the military, in the
front door, and they're gonna go out on one of
those three doors, for sure, Aunt Tommy, he's the last
(13:07):
to go. Afterwards, my wife discussed the conversation with me,
and she asked what I thought was driving his decision.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
My answer to her question was that he was bored.
My high school campus, full.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Of kids that all grew up together, becomes a very
small world church for teenagers. Every Sunday boy that gets routine,
real fast faith eventually fades away. Teachers telling him all
day what he's to believe doesn't challenge him to think
for himself.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
He doesn't learn to solve real problems, but rather digital
or paper. Once.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul
Bomber exclaims to his former teacher after returning home on
leave from the front lines in World War One, you
never taught us anything really useful, like how to light
a match in the wind or make a fire out
of wet wood. Sometimes it is the practical and not
the theoretical education that is important. He wants to take
(14:05):
classes to fly a plane, experience scuba diving and repel
out of a helicopter run an obstacle course. I'll learn
about teamwork from teachers who spent many years in the military.
He's not interested in being a digital cartoon characterization action figure.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
He wants to be an ill one. He wants to
be a green bearer.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Unless those ideas and dreams lie far out in the future,
though they may never materialize, I am comforted that he
has some starting point.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
In his life.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
These are questions his mother and I have discussed with
him since that night, The questions that he could not
provide answers for.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
He told us he would find them when he gets there.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
It was so apparent to me that my son was
becoming someone else.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I could see.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
His hunger for adventure and challenge was contained in my
most favorite quote of all of literature, Shakespeare's play at
Taming of the sh That's true. It introduces the cerro Petruchio, who,
while writing into Padua, is greeted by a friend from
his hometown, who asks, O, Hail Petruchio, what winds blow
thee to Padua? He answers, such winds that scatter young
(15:15):
men through the world to seek their fortune farther from
home or small experience grows. These are the words that
help me understand my son's decision. I worry about his
mother and how she's feeling about the prospect of her
son leaving home at sixteen. She was unprepared and not
(15:36):
happy about a separation so soon from Tommy. Our other son, Bobby,
had left for college a year earlier, and she thought
she would have Tommy for two more years. The idea
of spending twenty years as a mother and then watching
them leave home is a painful experience for any mom,
But his desire was so credible and so sincere that
(15:58):
she could only say yes. She says, she could not
be so selfish as to stand in the way of
her son seeking to make his life matter. At sixteen,
she always said that she put her children first. Her
commitment to that devotion puts her into the selfless position
that how her children feel is more important than how
she feels.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
So she is.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Preparing herself for what will be one of the most
difficult sacrifices she could make for her children. What a
fine example of love.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
That is for me.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
I grew up in and served in the military, as
in most of my family, and though I will miss him.
I accept the idea that life is a journey through
a strange land, and each obstacle that's overcome becomes a
transition to the next place in life. This challenge will
expand the margins of Tommy's life and test his capabilities.
When we finally informed Tommy that he'd been accepted and
(16:53):
then he could go, I had a sense and I
would see a lot of roswell in New Mexico over
the next couple of years. I think my wife will
insist upon it.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
And what a terrific story and has always beautifully told
and written by Bob McLean. And by the way, again,
if you know a storyteller in your town, in your city,
in your community, and you know who they are, there
are a few people who can just really write and
tell a story. Send their names to us. This is
our American Stories. The McLelland Files.
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
And we talk about everything here on this show, from
the arts to sports, from history to business and everything
in between.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
And we love hearing your stories.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Send them and we'll take a few of them, take
many of them if possible, and turn them into stories
right here on the show, and put them up on
the satellite so you can hear them too.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
What we're doing here is special. I think you know it.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Share it with friends and anywhere you can talk up
what we're doing. We appreciate it, and so too does
your station. And now it's time for the McLellan Files,
where we go deep inside the life of Bob McClellan.
Some of that you don't know, but whose life and
whose voice you're certain to be captivated.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
By the dealings.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
While watching a movie with my wife in the family
room one evening, we were interrupted by our sixteen year
old son, Tommy, who walked in and sat down with us. Politely,
He said he had something important he wanted to discuss
with us. As I turned off the TV, I quickly
imagined all the possibilities of something terrible, disastrous, or difficult
(01:21):
that could force a sixteen year old boy to sit
down to talk with his parents about anything important. My wife,
with her eyes wide open, sat silently while we all
got settled in to hear what he had to say.
I could not remember his approaching us like this before,
and my expectations, coupled with my imagination, made me feel
very uncomfortable. He began to tell us about a friend
(01:44):
whose cousin attended the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell,
New Mexico, for high school. That cousin is now captained
in the Green Berets, and his teaching math at West Point.
Tommy was very impressed by that and said he wanted
to go there for their two years of high school.
He talked about the academic standing of the school, the
(02:05):
numerous activities that were available, and the challenges he felt
the school would present him. As he spoke, I was
still unprepared for the ending of his story. Calmly and
ever so smoothly, he discussed his desire to attend such
a school and pursue a college education that no doubt
had a military career as.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Its ultimate destination.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
His mother countered with a gentle return to reason when
she said, you're going to a fine private high school
here in the Bay Area. Why would you want to
leave all of your friends? More straightforward questions came from me,
like are you unhappy? Oh, do you want drugs? He
said he was prepared to leave his friends as he
would make new ones at the school, and though it
(02:49):
was a military school, he was not enlisting and would
still be a high school student. He returned to talking
about the courses and activities offered by the school and
its academic reputation. He thought the disciplined and focus would
help him be more successful. It was obvious he had
done his homework, and it was evidence of how seriously.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
He took this idea.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Of leaving home, traveling and living at the school and
taking on a rigorous academic and physical regiment at sixteen
years of age, young though he may be, he had
reached a fork on the road in his life that
his mother and myself didn't see. We asked why would
he want to be going to a military institute that
sat out in the middle of the New Mexican Desert.
(03:33):
It was their reputation, he said. In their one year
cadet prep program, ninety seven percent go on to one
of the military academies. Out of a total of nine
hundred students, ninety went on to the military academies. He
thought that by doing well at NMI, he could pick
any college he wanted to attend, and, after graduation from college,
(03:55):
become an officer. I began to suspect that he was
poored living under the shady trees amidst a wealthy suburb
south of San Francisco. A bedroom community offers a little
excitement punching a time clock, working at a retail store,
or hanging around with your friends, playing with your fom
(04:17):
or living at home. There's a lotless adventurous and exciting
than traveling around with different places, living within a community
where thirty percent of the student body is international one
hundred percent or former military, and meeting the many challenges
that the military presents. We reminded him that home and
community are important for his development. They are nourishing, sustaining,
(04:38):
and necessary foundations for his life. But like bread, they
can often become stale. It wasn't love or nourishment that
was missing. He just needed more room to grow. Finally,
I just had to get to the point. I asked him,
what's this all about? I said, I got no problem
with the military, but why not do our in college?
(05:01):
If you want to go in the military, why do
you need to go down there and do this. There
was a moment of silence and a calm, self assured demeanor.
He looked at me, and without any doubt or hesitancy
in his voice, he said, Dad, I am not going
to go to Stanford Business School, and I'm not going
to go to Harvard, and I am not going to
(05:21):
spend the rest of my life working in an office.
I want to be a captain in the Green Berets.
I was speechless. There was nothing more I could say,
and at that point I was done.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
I was sold.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
He said he wanted to be an officer in the
Green Berets, work in special operations, and be fluent in Arabic.
He wanted to be a leader and not a follower.
GET heard from his friend's cousin that these men don't
need to find themselves.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
They do that every time they're.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Standing in a doorway getting ready to jump out of
a plane. I asked him, are you prepared to jump
out of a perfectly good airplane over Juria.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
His response was as simple, yes.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
I could see the look in his eyes were infused
with his youthful imagination and romanticism.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
But I knew he meant it. I understood how he felt.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
And though I thought it was a little early, I
reminded myself that, after all, it's just high school.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
He's not going off the war.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
I knew too that regardless of how far down this
path he goes, he will benefit from making this decision
and will learn a lot about himself in the process.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
This was his decision.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
He looked into his own insimpiate life and realizes that
he needed to find a different path to take him
to a different place. He didn't know where that place
was located, but his imagination convinced him that it existed.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
He just had to find it.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
And when we come back, more of this terrific story
from Bob McLelland. And by the way, if you have
a storytellerr in your that you know can just well
hop out stories, send his or.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Her information to us.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
We know there are great storytellers all over this great country.
More of the McClellan files after these messages. This is
(07:28):
Lee Habib, host of our American Stories. Every day we
set out to tell the stories of Americans past and present,
from small towns to big cities, and from all walks
of life doing extraordinary things.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
But we truly can't do this show without you. Our
shows are free to listen to, but they're not free
to make.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
If you love what you hear, go to our American
Stories dot com and make a donation to keep the
stories coming. That's our American Stories dot com. This is
(08:10):
Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories. And we
pick up we last left off with the McLelland files.
A young man, a boy having a dream in his head,
a vision in his head of leading a team overseas
in the Green beret and making that next important move
to go to military school. Let's pick up where we
last left off.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
As a parent, I learned eventually I could not really
direct my children's lives anymore.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Oh yeah, I could influence or coarsome, but I was
no longer the director.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
In this conversation with him that night, I realized I'd
become a spectator. I always believed as a father that
the best I could do was to prepare my children
to set their direction in life and be ready to
live with a success or failure of their choices. Now
have to honor that belief. Consequences exist in the world
(09:04):
of adults while children are protected from them. Families like
ours create barriers and boundaries and walls, trying to keep
out the grimmer and grimier aspects of society. But to
do that, we risk becoming in prison inside the walls,
holding on to the illusion that we are.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Safe and in control.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
We sent our children to private schools, put alarm systems
in our house, and we're careful about who we invited
into our home.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
But still we know that no one is safe.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
We picked their friends, picked their school and where they
can go. But at some point we can no longer
be there to make their decisions or supervise every activity, place,
or person that comes into their life. The point has
to come where either I release them or he just
jerks his.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Hand out of mind.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Troubles like drugs, teen suicides, mental illness, or just being
lost living at home with mom and dad have permeated
through the poorest walls of his school. He sees some
of his peers already making these dangers a lifestyle, and
it is one of the reasons why he wants to leave.
These dangers may be hidden among the many tomorrows of
(10:14):
his future. It was becoming apparent to me that Tommy
is not just running to someplace or running away from someplace.
I thought my wife and I would make all of
his decisions, but at some point I know we won't
be there to help him to manage these serious difficulties.
He needs many attributes to get him through, and resourcefulness
(10:37):
sits at the top of that list. Resourcefulness is an
attribute that is part of the military bedrock. Planning for
the unexpected, adapting to fluid situations, and working with limited
resources our integral parts of military training. Our natural instinct
at home is to nurture our children. It is our
(10:58):
duty as parents of being nurturing is not preparing them
to be self sufficient and independent. Eventually, the breast runs
dry and is incapable of providing nourishment for a man.
The appetite becomes too large when your son is six
feet tall and shade it without realizing it. Tommy's decision
(11:19):
is one that will help him develop the ability to
take care of himself. Wow, what a concept. Choosing for
oneself which side of the wall is right for you
is a decision we all have to make. Tommy chose
the risk of being on the outside rather than being
inside in the safety of the center. His confidence impressed
(11:40):
me as evidence of both his desire for independence and
self reliance. Regardless of the outcome, this is his choice.
If he gets down there and doesn't like taking seven
classes a day and training a one hundred degree heat
in the desert, then that's just too bad. As far
as I'm concerned, I am sure this experience will teach
him to be very select about what he chooses to
(12:01):
do in the future. He will certainly learn his limitations
down there, as well as his capabilities. Video games and
drugs and alcohol hold no lore or excitement for him.
At the NMI, he is not allowed to even have
a smartphone, and the internet access is controlled by the school.
It leaves all those attachments and appendages here at home.
(12:24):
There is no use for them at the school. They
will write letters instead and carry a flip phone. A
school seems to have a policy that I embrace. Less
is more. I told him that the door only swings
one way here and other than leave or come home
on vacations, don't come back until you finish. He said,
no problem, Dad. I told all my children when they
(12:47):
turn eighteen. Three doors will appear in their life, the
door to college, the door to the military, in the
front door, and they're gonna go out on one of
those three doors, for sure, Aunt Tommy, he's the last
(13:07):
to go. Afterwards, my wife discussed the conversation with me,
and she asked what I thought was driving his decision.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
My answer to her question was that he was bored.
My high school campus, full.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Of kids that all grew up together, becomes a very
small world church for teenagers. Every Sunday boy that gets routine,
real fast faith eventually fades away. Teachers telling him all
day what he's to believe doesn't challenge him to think
for himself.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
He doesn't learn to solve real problems, but rather digital
or paper. Once.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul
Bomber exclaims to his former teacher after returning home on
leave from the front lines in World War One, you
never taught us anything really useful, like how to light
a match in the wind or make a fire out
of wet wood. Sometimes it is the practical and not
the theoretical education that is important. He wants to take
(14:05):
classes to fly a plane, experience scuba diving and repel
out of a helicopter run an obstacle course. I'll learn
about teamwork from teachers who spent many years in the military.
He's not interested in being a digital cartoon characterization action figure.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
He wants to be an ill one. He wants to
be a green bearer.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Unless those ideas and dreams lie far out in the future,
though they may never materialize, I am comforted that he
has some starting point.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
In his life.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
These are questions his mother and I have discussed with
him since that night, The questions that he could not
provide answers for.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
He told us he would find them when he gets there.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
It was so apparent to me that my son was
becoming someone else.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I could see.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
His hunger for adventure and challenge was contained in my
most favorite quote of all of literature, Shakespeare's play at
Taming of the sh That's true. It introduces the cerro Petruchio, who,
while writing into Padua, is greeted by a friend from
his hometown, who asks, O, Hail Petruchio, what winds blow
thee to Padua? He answers, such winds that scatter young
(15:15):
men through the world to seek their fortune farther from
home or small experience grows. These are the words that
help me understand my son's decision. I worry about his
mother and how she's feeling about the prospect of her
son leaving home at sixteen. She was unprepared and not
(15:36):
happy about a separation so soon from Tommy. Our other son, Bobby,
had left for college a year earlier, and she thought
she would have Tommy for two more years. The idea
of spending twenty years as a mother and then watching
them leave home is a painful experience for any mom,
But his desire was so credible and so sincere that
(15:58):
she could only say yes. She says, she could not
be so selfish as to stand in the way of
her son seeking to make his life matter. At sixteen,
she always said that she put her children first. Her
commitment to that devotion puts her into the selfless position
that how her children feel is more important than how
she feels.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
So she is.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Preparing herself for what will be one of the most
difficult sacrifices she could make for her children. What a
fine example of love.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
That is for me.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
I grew up in and served in the military, as
in most of my family, and though I will miss him.
I accept the idea that life is a journey through
a strange land, and each obstacle that's overcome becomes a
transition to the next place in life. This challenge will
expand the margins of Tommy's life and test his capabilities.
When we finally informed Tommy that he'd been accepted and
(16:53):
then he could go, I had a sense and I
would see a lot of roswell in New Mexico over
the next couple of years. I think my wife will
insist upon it.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
And what a terrific story and has always beautifully told
and written by Bob McLean. And by the way, again,
if you know a storyteller in your town, in your city,
in your community, and you know who they are, there
are a few people who can just really write and
tell a story. Send their names to us. This is
our American Stories. The McLelland Files.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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