Fourteen Pairs of Boots: Life Lessons Learned in the Marine Corps (eBook)

Chapter 1:
A Little Bit About my Background

Fourteen pairs of boots. These were no ordinary boots. They were fourteen pairs of military combat boots. I had gathered them from various places in my house. They were primarily gathered from my basement and from my garage. I knew that I had them as I did not throw away any of the pairs of boots. I had gathered them all together. The gathering of these boots inspired me to photograph them.

Fourteen pairs of boots prior to arranging them in chronological order.

Photography was a hobby of mine, so I had one of those canvas backdrops photographers use for portrait photography. I used boxes and milk crates to create makeshift shelves and covered them with the canvas backdrop. At the very top, I placed the United States flag. It was folded into a triangle and was stored in a flag case. The flag was presented to me upon my request from when I retired from the United States Air Force Reserves.

On the second from the top row, I displayed seven pairs of boots. As you faced the display, the oldest pair of boots was on the far right. I displayed them in the order that I had worn them.

Fourteen pairs of boots all staged in order of when I wore them.

The first five pairs of boots were from my service in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. The next two pairs of boots that finished out the row were from my service in the Air Force Reserve. The bottom row started with another pair of boots I had worn in the Air Force Reserve and once again started with the oldest pair of boots on the extreme right. The next five pairs of boots I had worn in the Michigan Air National Guard. Finally, on the extreme left on the bottom row was the last pair of boots I had worn prior to retiring from the United States Air Force Reserve.

The photograph that inspired me to write this book.

Service in the Marine Corps Reserve, the Air Force Reserve, the Air National Guard and a return to the Air Force Reserve all represented twenty years of military service. Albeit it took over thirty years and going back four decades to achieve. As I gazed upon the enlarged print of the photograph, I could not help but think about how it all started.

Although it took over thirty years, I would achieve twenty years of credited service in the Air National Guard, the Marine Corps Reserve and the Air Force Reserve.

I grew up in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan. I would hear stories of the military mostly from my mother. My mom would frequently speak about her service in the United States Navy during World War II. During that time, women in the Navy were referred to as WAVES. The acronym stood for Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service. It was a division of the Navy that was created during World War II designed to free up male personnel for sea duty.

She told me she had enlisted because her brother had enlisted. It was the proudest moment of her life. Her service began in October of 1944 and ended in April of 1946.

My mom serving in the Navy during World War II.

My mom’s honorable discharge from United States Navy on April 22, 1946.

Both my mom and her brother’s names are enshrined in a wall sized plaque in the War Memorial of Grosse Pointe. When I was growing up it was simply referred to as the Grosse Pointe War memorial. The war memorial was a mansion donated by the Alger family family to the Grosse Pointe community in 1949. Russell Alger lived there until his death in 1930 and he was the founder of the Packard Motor Car Company. The stately old mansion serves as a community center for the Grosse Pointe communities. The stately old manor hugs the shore of Lake Saint Clair.

The World War II plaque on display at the War Memorial in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.

My mom and my uncle’s names on the World War II plaque.

The main hall contained plaques with the names of Grosse Pointe residents from World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. I was always held in awe looking at these plaques.

I would find out my mom was in violation of fraternization rules. She was enlisted and boasted of dating officers. She held Navy officers with the highest regard. Perhaps in a roundabout sort of way, I was attempting to win her approval. I had decided that after college I would become a Navy officer. Praise did not come easy to either of my parents. My father was born in 1920 and my mother was born in 1924. Their generation did not dispense praise too easily to their offspring. Actually, that’s an understatement. For them it was like performing brain surgery. In other words, not an easy task. In fact, I can remember the first time my mom said she was proud of me. It was November 2, 1985. I made this tackle after being sidelined with an injury for most of the season. I bounded back from my injury in time for the last regular season game. I made this tackle during the last play of the classic high school rivalry, Grosse Pointe North versus Grosse Pointe South. I wrote about it in a previous book I self-published called, Stuff in the Basement: Influences of James Dean.

My dad was another story. He was initially classified as “1A” which meant he was physically qualified for military service. However, he was downgraded to “4F” after his chest x-ray revealed a spot on his lungs. He served in a different capacity working as an engineering illustrator in a bomber plant in Omaha, Nebraska. It was the same plant that developed the B-29 bomber. This was the same model of aircraft that dropped atomic bombs on the cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan that effectively ended World War II.

My dad long before he was married. Circa early 1940s.

My father would pass away from colon cancer on January 20, 1986. I was 18 years old. I often wonder if the spot on his lung was cancerous and metastasized elsewhere?

Ironically, I was accepted into Eastern Michigan University on the same day my father passed away. Mr. Thomas Neil was my guidance counselor in high school. He suggested I take the ASVAB. The acronym stood for Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery of tests. I asked him why? His response was, “It will give you an idea of you are good at doing…perhaps a future career.”

I decided I had nothing to lose. I had no plans of enlisting. Besides, I would become a Navy officer after college. The ASVAB would get me out of class for at least three hours. I therefore decided to go ahead and take the test.

In April of 1986, I drove to Ypsilanti, Michigan to take a tour of the campus of Eastern Michigan University, speak to an academic advisor and register for classes at the fall semester. The fall semester would begin on September 3, 1986. However, before beginning college I would have to finish high school first. This one-day immersion was called The Fast Track Program.

My high school experience was what could best be described as “bittersweet.” I thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in extracurricular activities. I was on the football team for four years, was on the track team for three years and upon earning my varsity letter in 1984, I joined the varsity club. All these activities kept me busy. This was the sweet in bittersweet.

There was another reason I stayed busy in high school. It was a distraction. In November of 1981, I was a middle school student at Charles A. Parcells Middle School in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan. My dad was admitted into the emergency room at Saint John Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. He had a blockage in his colon. A cancerous tumor about the size of a grapefruit was removed. His oncologist gave him six months to a year to live. Naturally, I did not take the news too well.

My dad surprised the entire family. He survived for four years and nearly three months before succumbing to cancer. My grades suffered throughout the that entire ordeal.

A large majority of the students from my high school applied to either Michigan State University or the University of Michigan. Although I fell in love with the campus of the University of Michigan due in large part to visiting my sister Anne, who was a student there, I knew I did not have the grades. I did not apply to either Michigan State University or the University of Michigan.

Instead, I applied to Central Michigan University, Western Michigan University and Eastern Michigan University. I was rejected for admission to both Central Michigan University as well as Western Michigan University. However Eastern Michigan accepted me on academic probation as part of what was known as the PASS program. PASS was an acronym for Promote Academic Student...