62 GoodLifeFamilyMag.com JULY | AUGUST 2019 What if your child chooses to enlist out of high school rather than go to college? Or wants to attend a military college? Or sees the value in having the military pay for a college education? The scenarios can be very different, but for the parents, the struggles are very much the same. Torn between being concerned for their safety and whether their children are prepared for the reality of that level of commitment while also being beyond proud that their children are willing to make that level of sacrifice, military parents face a unique emotional dichotomy. For David and Terry Nash, they knew there was a likelihood that at least one of their five boys could join the military. After all, David enlisted at age seventeen and served 20 years in the U.S. Army, and for seventeen of those years, Terry was by his side. After retirement, he became the JROTC instructor at Grand Prai- rie High School. It turned out that two of their boys signed up. Currently, their oldest Stephen is stationed at Ft. Jackson, SC, and their youngest James is at Ft. Stewart, GA. David has a unique perspective as a former military recruiter and in his current position with JROTC. He often advises high school students who are interested in military careers. “I encour- age my students, if they’re capable, to go to college and take the military option,” David says. University ROTC programs allow students to prepare for the military after graduation while focus- ing on a degree. For others, enlisting is the better option. “From my experience, I’ve seen kids graduate but struggle to get ahead. The military can help them get on track,” David believes. One of the biggest benefits of enlistment is the availability to use the GI Bill to pay for a college education. Terry’s and David’s oldest son has done just that. During his time in the Army he has completed his bachelor’s degree and is now finishing his master’s in Healthcare Administration. Just four years from retirement, he will be debt free and well prepared for his future out of the service. Terry believes having been around the military so long made her less concerned about her sons choosing the same path. “I was accustomed to the environment,” she says, but for Liz Bur- ton, there was a lot of hesitation. Her son Blake, now twenty, enlisted in the Marines at age eighteen at the end of his senior year while Liz and her husband were away with a younger child at a soccer tournament. “We weren’t necessarily on board at first,” Liz admits. She and her husband, a physician in McKinney, had expected that Blake would go to college out of high school. He’d played high school football and had gotten some offers to play for some smaller schools, but unbeknownst to them, he’d been com- municating for months with the local recruiter who had visited his high school. In the two years since he enlisted, “there have been ups and downs,”Lizsays,butultimately,shebelieves,“Ithinkit’sbeengood for him.” Blake is currently stationed in Oahu, Hawaii and has just returned from a six-month deployment to Okinawa, Japan. He told his parents he chose the Marines and to be in an Infantry unit because “they’re the meanest, the hardest, the toughest…If I’m going to do it, I’m going to go full force.” Looking back, maybe she shouldn’t have been so surprised since Blake had dressed up AS A PARENT, YOUR DREAM IS FOR YOUR CHILDREN TO FIND THEIR PASSION AND TO SECURE A FUTURE THAT ENSURES THEIR STABILITY AND HAPPINESS. YOU MAY BE THINKING COLLEGE AND A CAREER IN BUSINESS ARE THE BEST PATH, BUT WHAT IF YOUR CHILD SEES HIS OR HER FUTURE IN THE MILITARY? I WANT TO JOIN THE MILITARY MOM AND DAD, By AliciaWanek