Something just hit me like a rock. It hit me hard.
My grandfather was a United States Marine. He died someplace in the South Pacific while fighting the Japanese at the end of World War II. My father, like his father before him, was a United States Marine. He gave his life for his country in Vietnam. I too joined the United States Marines. See a trend here?
When I signed my name on the dotted line and promised to protect our nation from all enemies, foreign and domestic, it never dawned on me that my father and his father both gave their lives for their country while serving as US Marines.
I spent four wonderful years in the Marines, and learned more about myself and life in general during those four years than any other period in my life. But somehow I got lucky and managed to break the family tradiation.
