The Purple Family

Why purple? Apparently Joint Force activites are called purple-the blending of the forces together. And since we have one child in each of the services-Army, Navy , Air Force , and Marines-I guess we are purple. Blending is not quite the word I will use to describe the dinner table conversation when it turns to the role of each of the services-but at the end of the day they are on the same team.Peopel ask me how our kids all chose the military. We do have a strong military family legacy. Both my parents were officers in the Army-in fact I was the reason for my mother's honorable discharge. Back in the day even married women could not be pregnant and stay in. My husband and I met when we were both in the Air Force. He left the Air Force and began working in the airline industry; we moved to a farm where it would be a great place to raise kids. They did not grow up on military bases like I did -but every year we traveled to Washington DC for the Memorial Day concert and to visit Arlington Cemetery. The boys were active in scouts. My husband told his stories of flying the C-130 and instructing-and along the way they each got bit by the flying bug.The eldest decided in 8th grade he wanted to try for the Air Force Academy. We encouraged him to reach for the dream-ultimately he and the next two siblings all graduated from the US Naval Academy. Little brother-not so little at 6'5"-rebelled by earning a full ride scholarship from the Army ROTC Helicopter Scholarship program.So now I have three commissioned officers and one on the way due to be commissioned in 2012.Two are still in a training environment but soon it will take a Garmin to keep track of all of them-if I am allowed to know where they are.Ah purple -if you separate the colors you get red, white , and blue. I guess we really are purple.