I know a collage of details, i.e. not in any particular chronological order, about Drew's "former" life having to do with the military. He enlisted right out of high school not knowing if he'd know what to do with himself in college. There was a brief stint in which he wanted to go to the Army military academy, but after crawling around in the backwoods of Kentucky with the Army and a bad attitude, he decided it wasn't the right fit – and they agreed. Instead, he joined the Air Force, like his father and brother before him. He joined thinking he'd get to see something of the world (like his father and brother before him), but after basic training (in Texas) and career training (in Mississippi), they shipped him all of three hours from home to Colorado Springs. (There's something in the military called a Dream Sheet, in which a person can list their top three choices for a duty station. Not knowing much about geography at the time, Drew put Korea at the top of his list.)During the first week of basic training, he was allowed to call home for one minute, to let home know that he had arrived and was okay. In order to ensure that someone would be home to receive the call, the trainees had to call at some ridiculous hour of the morning. Drew reached his mother, disoriented from sleep, and was near tears by the time he had to hang up. After a long week of sleep deprivation and ill-treatment, you can imagine a lot of guys were extremely happy to hear a familiar (caring) voice. In those six weeks, he tested into a military career field, fired weapons and was fired at, learned how to salute properly, wear his various uniforms. At the time the picture below was taken, they had only allowed him to wear the top portion – on the bottom he was wearing his BDUs. Sometimes I laugh when I see this picture. Like most women, I love a man in uniform, but sometimes I have a hard time believing mine was ever in one. And so young!
Drew served four years of active military duty (all served in C.Springs) as a navigational electronics technician. Basically, he maintained the equipment that you see out on airport runways that help planes land and take off. He partied like any good military personnel, he smoked (a habit picked up in high school), and he had a serious girlfriend named Marie. Yup, folks, another girl almost got in before me. But it wasn't meant to be because Drew had designs on a college education (via the G.I. Bill) and she wanted a military career. Four years of active military service actually also includes four years of inactive military duty (eight years total), in which the military is essentially reserving the right to call a person up for active duty like in the case of war. The chances are usually pretty slim (since there are others to call), but I, for one, was waiting with bated breath during the war in Afghanistan (2002). That was the year that Drew should have been totally separated, but the military put a "stop loss" on everyone: no one could retire, no one could separate. (I'm sure you could still get kicked out though.) I forget how long the stop loss was in effect since the initial anxiety eventually wore off, but I think it was sometime the following year when we received Drew's official separation/discharge (with honors) papers.