Patton-Petraeus-Petzold

[Petz2]

Petz has tried to post up several times to thank everyone for the acknowledgement and kudos, but met with technical difficulty.

The parental pride that motivated me to post really comes from watching a young man successfully navigate the process from adolescent youth to adult maturity.  This can be experienced by any parent who sees their child accept responsibility for their own life and then struggle with planning, disappoinmtent, dashed expectations, reset, adjust, plan execute etc.....repeat, regardless of their individual goal.  The fact that WP is part of Spencer's future  is really  secondary to watching the journey.

The Army actively recruits for qualified individuals to enter West Point from the enlisted ranks to balance the program with experienced soldiers.  The vast majority of cadets matriculate directly from high school.

Since  Spencer was assigned to an Army prepatory school in New Jersey beginning July to prepare him for the academic rigor of WP, he will miss his planned deployment to Iraq.  This is somewhat disappointing to him since he had been trained for an extensive time to perform a specialized role in that area.

I want to thank each of you for your well wishes and allowing me to "brag" on my son  for a little bit.  The SCV has many of our  young people enrolled  in the military  academies and deployed through out the armed forces .  Each of them deserve our thanks and support.

[Mike]

Is it just me, or did Petz just break character?

Very touching.  This is quite an accomplishment.  Will he be able to keep his Arabic fresh at WP?

[CC]

Naw, we just saw him peel away a layer.

[Phil Ellis]

Petz has always been a softie.  Curmudgeon (or is it crumundgeon) has been his mask.

[Petz2]

Is it just me, or did Petz just break character?

Very touching.  This is quite an accomplishment.  Will he be able to keep his Arabic fresh at WP?

He can take it as a major, but they also put him through Spanish so he got a two for at the Defense Language Institute.

[lvogel]

"I want to......"

What!  No WAY....

Did  Petz2 refer to himself in the 'first person'?!....

Know it won't last, but WOW when it happens.......