Teen has the heart of a Marine

[Pathfinder]

Read this story, it will make you proud - and sick from the a$$holes who surrounds this patriotic boy. Here's the link to the whole story:  http://bismarcktribune.com/articles/2008/04/23/news/life/153503.txt

<Updated and a spoiler - He cannot join the Marines due to a Heart defect; the part about his old man being relieved with one less thing to worry about made me physically ill - so clueless about his own son's desires and dreams. Sad fact is, his old man would probably accept his son bringing Brucie or Lenny home as his "wife", but can't handle him being a Marine!>

<Update continued - I have contact information I found online for his parents - any thoughts on posting it (liability perhaps?) here so we can send words of encouragement to the boy? They live near Bloomfield Hills - very rich, very liberal>

Here are the first few paragraphs:

DETROIT - All Robert Lewis ever wanted to do was join the military. It was a decision no one could understand. Everyone argued against it.

Would his dream come true?

Robert Lewis talks like a Marine.

"May I use the latrine?" he asks, sometimes by mistake, and the civilians - check that, his teachers at West Bloomfield High School - look at him like he's from another planet. "I mean, can I use the bathroom?"

He walks like a Marine - shoulders pulled back, chest pumped up, eyes focused straight ahead. He looks like a Marine, with a high and tight haircut, shaved on the sides, a little left on top. He acts like a Marine, lowering the school's flag to half-staff when he is notified that a service member from Michigan has died. It is only right and proper. Nobody else at the school knows how to do it correctly.

And he plays like a Marine. He headed into the woods for spring break, carrying a backpack with 25 pounds of gear, marching for miles, sleeping in a tent, boiling water and living off the land for 10 days, just for the heck of it, while his classmates went on cruises and trips down south. They don't understand him. At a time when the military is searching high schools and struggling to find recruits, Robert Lewis is the exception. He went to them.

Robert Lewis thinks like a Marine, spouting a motto that has become his mantra: "Honor. Courage. Commitment."

"Ooh-rah!" he says.

And in his mind, he is a Marine, a 17-year-old Marine. It is the only thing he has ever wanted. He is still a high school senior, too young to sign up and officially commit, but in his heart, he is a Marine.

In his heart: That is where this story begins.

In his heart: That is where this story will come to an end.

With the death of his dream.

Nobody understands him. Nobody wants him to be a Marine - not his friends, not his classmates and certainly not his parents. They have peppered him with so many questions, he can recite them from memory:

"Why do you want to become a Marine? You're just falling into the government's trap. Why die for Bush's stupid war? You really are an idiot, Robert. You are too young to know what's best for you, Robert. Why, why do you want to be a Marine?"

His girlfriend of two years didn't want him to enlist and they broke up a few months back.

His classmates can't fathom why anybody would put their life on the line for a war that, in their eyes, doesn't make sense.

And his parents, Jay and Kim Lewis, can't think of a single family member, on either side, who was involved in the military. When Robert was accepted into the Citadel, the military college in South Carolina, it was one of the happiest days of his life. His father was devastated. "I was crushed that day," Jay Lewis said. "That's when I knew this wasn't a joke."

Nobody, at least none of the civilians, supported his decision. They begged him to change his mind:

"I don't want the person I love coming home in a box. I can't fall in love with you because you're going away to war, I'm sorry. Stop talking about the stupid Marines, it makes me cry, Robert."

So how did it happen?

[twyacht]

It sounds like the Marines will be a far better family, and it shows how aspects of our culture have changed.

If these people open the eyes God gave them, they would see he is a role model far better than other twice his age, with courage and honor, I wish him well and hope his family will change their minds.

The Citadel is top shelf, I'm stunned those around him can say what they said. I would be proud, not "devastated".

Sometimes I think aspects of this country are on the fast track to hell. 

[Hazcat]

Follow the link and read it all.  It will break your heart.  This young man NEEDS an adult right now and he has no where to turn.  I worry for him.  He needs some positive direction and he is not getting it and won't from those around him now.

[gunman1911]

When I was a young feller I would listen to my Dad and Uncles speak of WWII and seen some of the pictures they brought back and also some of their "keepsakes".I also seen pictures of my uncles in the Dress Blues and heard of the fighting in the Pacific. Its things like that that made me proud of them and want to follow in their footsteps. But unfortunately I to have a heart murmur that led to surgery when I was 9 years old. When I turned 18  I told my grandmother I was going to the recruiter's office to join the Marines all she said was "we'll see" I went and the recruiter told me that I could be officer material, so down to the AFES building in Detroit we went for my physical. Got undresses and stood in line with the others a doctor walked  right up to me ,ran his finger up and down my scar and asked"What is from?" I told him . He said get dressed your done. I then went to all the other branches of the military and got turned down. To this day I still regret not being able to serve. I feel the pain and anguish that  this young man does and will for the rest of his life but he needs to understand that you can still be proud of your wants and desires and I hope that he takes that class in Florida  and maybe serve his community one day as a LEO, Just as I did. the only diffeance between him and I are that  at least my family encouraged me to somthing honarable, just like my Dad and Uncles. My heart ,prayes and good luck whishes go out to this very fine young man.