Keeping Faith

I just finished the book Keeping Faith by a father son team of writers. It is the story of the first year and a half's relationship between a father and a son after the son decides to join the Marine Corps.

"The story of a young man having a growth experience by joining the military
is a classic scenario, and John Schaeffer does justice to his take on it in his
account of personal transformation from high-school graduate to U.S. Marines
corporal. Interspersed with his narrative are his father Frank's remarks on the
rest of the family's incidental affiliation with and new perspective on the
marines [sic] in particular and the military in general. They brought to the encounter the ignorance and prejudice against the military that too often accompanies
their status as members of the college-educated white middle class, from which,
in fact, precious few of America's servicemen come. But in the end, Frank
expresses open pride in having sent one of "the best ye breed" to the corps
before September 11. One of the better books of its kind, and likely to remain
so." (Booklist)

I found this to be one of the best books I have ever read about what boot camp does to a recruit, inside his head. I remember my experience being quite different than John Schaeffer's, but also quite similar. Our time in boot camp was separated by ten years and a continent, so some of the differences are due to different culture and geography at the two Marine Corps Recruit Depots.

I would reccomend this book for any parent's of a Marine or anyone who has a young person they care about going to Boot Camp. If your kid is going to one of the other services you could get it to show you what they missed, because the Army, Navy and Air Force are NOTHING like this, even after their vaunted reforms in recent years.