Do you have a young family member joining the services?
I can understand your worries and your pride at the moment.
It's a big bad world out there, that's for sure, but the armed services do everything in their power to look after their own, and it's probably the next best thing to a family that a rookie can have.
Army rookies in particular are having a hard time just now, but I see the look on these lads faces, even when they are returning for a tour of duty in Afghanistan or Iraq for the umpteenth time. It would take a mean parent to deprive them of the comradeship, pride and unity that they feel for their fellow soldiers.
Some have a short life, it's true, but what a life they lived, on high energy, with their mates and to the fullest that anyone could.
So, I feel for all those parents with sons and daughters on the front line, but be proud, be very proud, for you children are what the world needs now... and in the future.
