"There is no shame in being second best"

For quite some time now No. 2 Son has been talking about his great desire to be a Navy Seal. I don't know what it is that created this desire in him, but I'm not going to do anything to dispel that either.

As the regular readers know, No. 1 Son is in the Marine Jr. ROTC program at his high school. The instructor for that program is CWO Gunner. Awhile back No. 2 Son and Gunner were discussing things, and the discussion turned to the military where No. 2 Son did not hesitate to relate his desire to be a Navy Seal. Gunner asks why he would want to be a Seal, and No. 2 Son responded that while he knows the Marines are tough, the Seals go in, get the job done, and get out without anyone knowing they were there. This didn't seem to phase Gunner in the least (very little does) as Gunner responded "Well, that's ok. There is no shame in being second best if that is what you want."

This conversation was brought to memory yesterday as we were watching "The Unit". I have said before, and I still believe, that this television program is the single best hour long commercial for the US Army ever developed. The plot was the team was extracting a kidnapped journalist from Lebanon. Things didn't go according to plan and their extraction helicopter was shot down, and one of the team was badly wounded in a gunfight so they could not get to the secondary extraction point. They tended the wounded soldier and put a marker on the top of a building hoping the satellites could see it and send help.

At the end of the show, help arrived in the form of the US Marines. This sent No. 1 Son into hysterics as he found great joy that the US Marines had to be sent in to rescue the US Army Special Ops team. I'm certain that at school today, he is telling all of his MJROTC comrades about it.