There's nothing really new about calling this time of year the Dark Ages, but it takes on a deeper meaning for first-year students at our military academies. At USAFA, they've endured the challenge of I-Day and summer training and the abrupt introduction into the Cadet Wing followed by drinking from a fire hose of names, … Continue reading With February arrives the real Dark Ages

I've been writing since, well, as long as I can remember. Even in elementary school, writing wasn't something to do just for homework or assignments. It was something to do for fun. It took me a long time to understand that not everyone felt that way. Writing poetry or stories or, when my life drew … Continue reading Ground Stop over, it’s time to fly again

There have been times since I started blogging (including this one) where it's gone dormant for a stretch and that’s mostly been due to my own inability to organize my thoughts in a way coherent enough to present to the rest of the world. This is different. My Kid The Cadet will engage in what … Continue reading Temporary Ground Stop

When your kid attends one of our military academies, it’s easy to become subsumed by their life. Their schedule becomes your schedule and at least in our case, your family calendar depends largely on the academy’s calendar. By late October, we were eyeing up our son’s return from the Naval Academy – when could he … Continue reading A Day – a milestone in more ways than one

Life as a military academy parent is all about milestones and the USAFA Class of 2025 is no different. We (somehow) made it through I Day, a brief phone call that evening, and another call a few weeks later. Finally, letters began to arrive. Then, when we could divert our eyes away from hunting on … Continue reading Letters, calls, and the march from Jacks Valley

If there's one phrase I've heard military academy parents use repeatedly, it's "prayer marathon." Whether it's the stress over receiving a congressional appointment, the anxiety of waiting to hear about an appointment, or the worries that crescendo at Induction Day and continue, if we're being honest, all the way through commissioning in one form or … Continue reading Keep those thoughts and prayers coming during BCT

You’d think having gone through two Induction Days - one for my son at USNA and my daughter’s last year at the USAFA Prep School – this one would be easy. It wasn’t and that’s even before we factor in the massive amount of travel-related insanity we endured from the time we left home, which … Continue reading So I Day is over … now what?

As a lifelong content creator, I find that my first response to most any interesting moment is to create something. Sometimes it's a social media post, other times it's a t-shirt, and there's always my favorite standby, writing. One of the habits I got into while my son was at the Naval Academy was to … Continue reading The Summer Playlist for the Class of 2025 is live

The calendar has flipped to June and while there are a number of exciting things filling the days of the first few weeks, it's no longer reasonable to ignore it. We are headed for Induction Day. This will be my third I Day, second in the COVID-19 era. My first was my son's entrance into … Continue reading What I know (and don’t know) about I Day and the summer to follow

A solemn reminder. Memorial Day used to be about a three-day weekend. Cookouts. The unofficial start of summer. Beaches. Vacation. Then my son got an appointment to the Naval Academy. Now it's different. There is no "Happy Memorial Day." There is no "thank you for your service" to those in uniform. I remind others (and … Continue reading Memorial Day: Beyond cookouts and the beach