A Summer of Change

You know, it has been a fascinating summer. It all started with the High School Graduation of my youngest daughter, Natalie.

By the time July arrived, summer was in full swing as Nicole was married. Losing Nicole wasn't easy. She is a bright, beautiful, and poised young woman. I've loved her since I first saw her and gave her that first bath and bottle.

But Dan is a wonderful young man with a great future ahead and I’m proud of him. He treats Nicole well, is serious and driven, but is still fun loving and affable, and is so obviously a gentleman. It is easy to see why Nicole adores him.

I suppose no wedding comes without some family drama and since Nicole and Dan spared us any, it was left to my oldest daughter to provide that for us. I wish she could figure out that she’s important and loved.

My son managed to provide the rest of the summer drama with several trips to the hospital. He has recently found his way to Gene Fullmer’s gym in South Jordan and has been boxing his way to sobriety.

After all of that, we bid farewell to Dan as he headed for Basic Training at Lackland AFB. Just before they were married, he joined the Utah Air Guard. After he completes Basic, he will be off to Fort Leonard Wood to learn to be a Readiness Specialist.

Life is full of irony. Growing up – an Air Force Officer’s Brat, I wanted to be a full-time Air Force Officer. As a young married man with two children, I enrolled at the Air Force ROTC program at the University of Utah when I started school there.

I was already an enlisted member of the Air Force serving in the Reserve – working first as a mechanic, then Technician, and finally Maintenance Manager and Instructor on the F4 and later F16 at Hill AFB.

My brother, currently a retired Air Force Pilot flying for Southwest Airlines, was already a student at the “U” and a member of the ROTC program. He went on to become the Cadet Commandant of the Wing, and to be offered membership in the Order of Daedalus. He was also the recipient of the President’s Cup.

Shortly after I enrolled at the “U” – my life went through traumatic changes and I made decisions regarding an Air Force career that would allow me to remain involved in the lives of my children. I also wanted to spare my children the miserable experiences that come from being a part of the airman that the Air Force does not want – his family!

As I grew older and we added the last two daughters, I came to enjoy and appreciate the value of a “home town” and roots. Career opportunities that would upset those roots for my children were avoided and refused. We even built a second home in the same neighborhood to maintain those roots!

But life is full of incongruities. My eldest daughter married a young man who wanted to go to the Air Force Academy. They had not been married long when Jake enlisted in the Air Force and has been serving ever since. He has had several tours of duty in Iraq and spent a year in both Afghanistan and South Korea. He has one of those high-testosterone jobs where he works with the Rangers and calls in air support.

Dan was the second to affiliate with the military.

Then Natalie started college. When your youngest starts college, you can't seriously tell people that you are prematurely gray!

But my summer of change was far from over. Natalie had been corresponding (mostly by cell phone – kids don’t write anymore – they phone or text!) with a young man she met at the Fitness Center she works at as a Life Guard. Roughly a year ago, he entered the Navy and has been in Pensacola ever since.

Well Nate came home on leave on his way to his new assignment in Washington, and low and behold, now there is a diamond on her youthful finger!

Nate is a cockpit and radar guy working on the new Navy Growler. It may be Navy, but it is still aircraft - I think I can live with that! I like Nate, he is bright, mature and charming, and has his future figured out. He is also funny and good-natured. Natalie seems settled and the way she misses him, it is obvious she is in this for keeps.

Like Jake and Dan – Nate comes from fine people with good roots. But - the fascinating summer is going to carry over into an action-packed fall and a life-altering winter.

I can’t help but wonder though - if I had been a career military man, would my daughters have married root-bound farmers?