Why I Wanted To Be A U.S. Marine At Age Sixteen:

As a child, I grew up trading baseball cards and playing sports with the neighborhood boys as much as possible. It wasn't forbidden like cable television, by my father. I wasn't allowed to "whine" about being tackled by 200 pound, teenaged boys, after throwing the football though.

Often I'd come back, happy that I could throw the football further, without hitting the cars across the field. My strategy there was merely to shout orders for my receiver to start running as far and fast as possible.

In elementary school, I would play baseball, soccer, and field hockey with the boys. If there was any group of kids available outside, then I often shouted, "Girls against boys! The girls will win!" I wanted to run faster, and farther at the high school track. At age eight, I would go from my elementary school to the high school track alone, across Route 50, to run there.

I'd see the high school track team sprinting and hurdling sometimes. This was impossible for me at age eight, because I wasn't allowed, and I was too small. Much like the main character in "Where the Red Fern Grows," I yearned, but not to have coon dogs. I yearned to be like those high school athletes: bigger, older, and faster. I used to watched Flo Jo run on television, and wanted to be as fast as her also. If I came home bleeding from a sport, I was trained by my father to be stoic about it.

My father was the one who swam extremely fast, competitively, even in the shark-infested ocean waters of South Vietnam. I never wanted to join the U.S. Navy, having been told by him that I swam awkwardly above water and was clearly uncomfortable with the ocean currents. He would laugh seeing me fighting the currents at Ocean City, Maryland. I could decently hold my breath for a long time, and swim underwater like a tadpole, but only at the recreational center pool.

In South Vietnam that's horrendous. As a result, I wasn't allowed to be too close to the white water rapids of Great Falls Park in Northern Virginia. Also, I wasn't snake-smart, while hiking around rattlesnake territory. My father would see for them as we hiked, and try to teach me how to be more snake-smart as a child. That was essential for Vietnamese jungle survival. I was also too Americanized to be trusted to process the live fish for dinner. I was only allowed to watch him hold down, behead, gut and remove scales from the fish.

Looking up to the athletes, and always wanting to compete against the boys was probably the reason I wanted to be a Marine at sixteen. Another reason is because I grew up in a historically, and culturally Southern state. Virginia, once the state of the Southern capital, Richmond, is permeated with the expectation to become either a competitive athlete, the U.S. President, or to serve in the U.S. military. I know of no other place more conservative than Virginia.

I've even been to Georgia, and they don't need to name their children after Civil War Generals. This is the same state with the most U.S. Presidents. Patrick Henry exemplified the Virginian tradition by starting the American Revolutionary War. His speech, "Give Me Liberty, Or Give Me Death," is constantly emphasized, so that Virginian students are taught to serve their country, through the U.S. military, or become "ex-communicated" from being a proper Virginian.

Also, I preferred the Marine Corps because I didn't want to walk in my father's shadow. Since he helped the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, prior to becoming a POW, I knew I couldn't truly measure up to him. Both my father and uncle were POW's after the fall of Saigon. Despite everything, I ended up going into the Navy. At age sixteen, I had to get my father's approving signature on my delayed entry form paperwork. I knew he was Go Navy. Even now, because I'm a Virginian, I still feel like shouting, "Girls against boys! The girls will win!" And I still believe that, because I competed among the Navy SEAL candidates, and was able to win sometimes.