I Also Told Him "Mom's and Girls Love their Sailors." He is ready to go!

I was sitting in the sauna the other day with some locals, having a conversationn about this, that, and the other thing when in comes this young Chamorro (Guamanian) guy who quietly sat down among us. As we continued our usual sauna room banter, this young fellow just sat there taking it all in. Finally after several minutes he asks "How long are you supposed to sit in here?" It didn't take long for all three of us regulars to chime in like we were authorative members of the the Wikipedia Sauna Club or something.

Soon thereafter, this certain teenager began opening up with us older fellows. He asked questions and we provided answers like it was a game show of Sauna Jeopardy. Finally he worked up the nerve to ask his most serious question of all - "Do any of you guys know anything about boot camp?... Is boot camp Hard?" This is how we first learned that he had joined the U.S. Navy. Well, you would have thought the stakes of this sauna game show quiz just went through the roof. Being that all of us regulars were military retirees, we were all anxious to fulfill this pending recruit's bucket list of questions with rightful answers. None of us had any problem offering up our hearty congratulations and best advice to this young fellow, who in our opinion, was not just another grown teenager, but someone who had crossed the threshold of manhood by making a "manly" decision to serve his country. Whether he knew it or not, he was a man in a boy's body.

After a few minutes, we learned the real reason he was in the sauna was not to garner answers, but to shed a few pounds before he was to report for basic training basic training in Great Lakes in a few short weeks. Upon the advice of his recruiter, he was at the gym working out and getting in shape for what he was told would be his "worst nightmare" come true... mostly by envious friends and acquaintences, I'm sure. I personally assured him that if he was mentally prepared for his "worst nightmare" scenario, he would be pleasantly surprised at how easy boot camp can be (we are not talking U.S. Marines here!). I also explained how lucky he was not to be going to Great Lakes in the dead of winter!

It was further suggested to him that basic training was more than training... it was also a system that is designed to identify and wash out the feeble and weak minded. These types of individuals are basically not well-suited to handle the pressures imposed in stressful situations (like weak links in a chain), so they are identified early and released. The military is all about education, training, teamwork and confidence. Boot camp is designed to break everyone down to the lowest denominator and build everyone back up again with the knowledge and confidence they need to be successful going forward. We went on further to explain to this young man that if he was positive minded and mentally prepared, he should accept this nine-week course as game of challenge because it can be fun and exciting if you make it that.

I told him as far as many of us were concerned, attending boot camp is not something that you would volunteer to do over (unless you are into that kind of thing), but I have never met a basic training graduate (in any branch) that would trade away the experience for anything. "Once you graduate Navy Basic Training", I told him, "you will always be able to look back on that experience with a feeling of great accomplishment and pride. Your parents also will be proud! And after all... you will be a Sailor in the world's finest navy!"

We all ended our sauna session with sharing the thought that some day he could be sitting right here, relaxing in this same sauna, and telling sea stories to some young enlistee, just like on this day, also providing the affirmation that they too have made a great decision.