Graduation Day!

At the Turning Blue ceremony a week ago Thursday, Jordan and his fellow recruits were awarded the coveted blue Infantry cord, signifying their new status as active duty soldiers.

The following day, under a cloudless Georgia sky, we watched from the shade of a grandstand as members of the 2nd Battalion, 58th Infantry Regiment marched onto the parade grounds behind the National Infantry Museum for their actual graduation.

The grassy field is considered hallowed ground -- and for good reason. At a dedication ceremony in mid-June, soil from eight American wars was sprinkled over the field as a reminder of the Infantry's role in U.S. history. Imagine marching on green grass, with granite markers containing so-called "sacred soil" from the battlegrounds of Yorktown, Antietam, Soissions, Normandy, Corregidor, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan.

Friday's graduation ceremony itself took about an hour and was followed by a visit to the National Infantry Museum, recently completed at a cost of $100 million and dedicated on June 19, with former Secretary of State Colin Powell, himself a former Fort Benning trainee, as guest speaker. (Check it out here: http://www.nationalinfantrymuseum.com/)

During the ceremony, there was music (patriotic songs performed by the Army band based at Fort Benning), there were speeches (from the commanding officer), there were a handful of awards (to the highest-ranked soldiers in each company and their drill sergeants), there was a demonstration of the equipment carried by members of a typical nine-man squad, and there were still and video cameras to record every moment. Most of all, there was a feeling of accomplishment at completing a rigorous 14-week basic training program.

Immediately afterward, soldiers were either given leave to spend time with their families or they were shuttled onto buses to be shipped to their next assignment, whether it be with a National Guard unit in their home state or another level of training, such as Airborne school or advanced infantry.

In Jordan's case, he'll be with us in Portland through Monday, July 13, when he flies to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, to begin his first assignment as a bonafide soldier. From there, he says, he'll most likely be shipped to Iraq or possibly Afghanistan. Things could change at the last minute -- and change back again.

All in all, an unforgettable experience.

Jordan and Jamie

Happy to see each other? Yup.



Inseparable? Yup.



Wouldn't you be after 14 weeks??

Turning blue

A week ago today we rose early to drive 100 miles from Atlanta to Columbus, Ga., to be in place by 10 a.m. for two events at Fort Benning that would conclude with our son Jordan officially becoming a soldier.

To say we were proud parents -- eager to pick our trim, tanned 21-year-old out of the approximately 60 recruits in his company -- doesn't do justice to our emotions. We hadn't seen him for 14 weeks and we knew we were treading, literally and figuratively, on unfamiliar ground from the moment we drove past security onto the base, toward the Sand Hill Rec Center and nearby Kanell Field where things would take place on the parade grounds.

It was easy to get caught up in the excitement of the moment, but in retrospect I have to say that it was the "turning blue" ceremony where the fog began to lift for me.

You see, I've always had a murky understanding of the U.S. Army -- everything from its traditions and organization to its far-flung locations and Jordan's place in it. After spending parts of two days on base, I can say I'm beginning to grasp it.

Fort Benning is THE place where the Army trains every recruit who wants to be an infantryman. Thus, it's all men, as women are prohibited from combat. The guys go through physical training while learning all the basics -- how to shoot and care for their weapon, how to fire grenades and rockets, how to survive a chemical weapons attack, how to give first aid on the battlefield, etc.

Each recruit who successfully completes basic training is awarded a blue braid that is attached to the right lapel so that it encircles his shoulder. Lori, Jamie (Jordan's girlfriend) and I walked onto the field at the appropriate time and it was me who put the braid in place during the "turning blue" ceremony. Quite an honor for this peacenik of a dad.

In that instant, looking at the young man Jordan has become -- with great posture, self-discipline and a newfound self-confidence -- it was blindingly obvious that this is the experience he wanted all along, an opportunity to challenge himself and be part of a team in service to his country. Finally, we could see the hills he had run up, the woods where he had learned nighttime navigation, the barracks where he had slept, even the infirmary where he'd been treated for pneumonia.

It's possible that we might have come the longest distance to be there for Jordan. All but four states were represented in the two companies, Alpha and Charlie, that make up the 2nd Battalion, 58th Infantry Regiment, and the commanding officers noted that the largest number of recruits had come from Texas, Indiana and Florida. In addition to those states, I recall seeing visitors' cars with license plates from all over the South -- Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Kentucky -- as well as an occasional Wisconsin, New York or Pennsylvania.

The actual graduation ceremony came the next morning, on a sunny Friday, on the grassy field behind the just-opened National Infantry Museum. More on that in my next post...

Headed to Georgia

One of the best things about Portland is the annual Waterfront Blues Festival, a multi-day bash on the Willamette River that also serves as the Oregon Food Bank's largest fundraiser of the year. It's always a great mix of music, food and weather, with ponytailed, tie-dyed hippies dancing deliriously alongside folks half their age on the grassy knoll south of the Hawthorne Bridge.

I was really looking forward to this year's line-up: Etta James, Robben Ford, Johnny Winter, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, and many more. (Turns out Keb' Mo' will fill in as headliner for Etta James, who's canceling because of illness.) Alas, I'm going to miss them all...but for the best of reasons.

We fly out Wednesday morning to see Jordan graduate from basic training at the Army's infantry school in Fort Benning, Georgia. Hard to say who's looking forward to it more: him, us or his girlfriend, Jamie (pictured above with our favorite lucha libre wrestler).

We haven't seen him since March 19. We've talked to him a few times, as his schedule has permitted, and visualized the transformation of an eager but innocent young recruit to a confident and capable young man. There were times when, hearing his voice, we sympathized for what he was going through. We could detect weariness and loneliness at times, but always a resoluteness to push through.

The last couple of times we spoke, it was a series of rattling coughs. He'd been diagnosed with pneumonia. Fortunately, the antibiotics kicked in and he sounded much better yesterday. He and his buddies were attending an alcohol-free Fourth of July picnic on the base -- some deserved down time from their daily routine in the Georgia heat. (He says as he steps out of the air-conditioned barracks at 5:45 each morning, the humidity smacks him in the face and he starts sweating. It was 102 degrees the other day.)

So...we fly into Atlanta and spend one night there. We rise early Thursday to drive to Columbus, about 2 hours away on the Alabama border, for some orientation activities on the base and then watch the graduation ceremony on Friday. Assuming Jordan is given a medical OK, he'll begin his leave and can join us in traveling back to Atlanta on Saturday before we all fly home on Sunday.

The one thing I want to do for sure off-base is visit the
Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta. I've seen it once before, along with the Ebenezer Baptist Church, below, where Dr. King regularly preached, and it remains one of the most moving experiences of my life.

Seems entirely appropriate to begin the visit honoring Jordan and his fellow soldiers, who've committed to doing a job that entails great risk in the name of freedom, and end it by honoring Dr. King and thousands of ordinary heroes, who also took on great risk for the cause of civil rights.

Becoming a military dad

Slowly, but surely, I feel a change coming over me in how I think about the military and my own evolving role as the parent of a new Army enlistee.

If I think back to the mid-70s, I was no different than the majority of my peers at college. I wore my hair long and protested against the Vietnam War at the same time I tried to avoid being drafted. I got a student deferment, then a high lottery number (288), so I never served.

Years later, when I was in Washington, D.C., on business, I visited the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial and like so many others, was shaken to my core upon seeing the 58,195 names on The Wall. I knew no one who died in that conflict, but still...it still registers as probably the most humbling experience on my life, imagining those soldiers and their families and what they lost.

More recently, I've felt myself emotionally insulated from U.S. invasions of Grenada (what a joke) and Iraq (especially the first time, recalling the unreal experience of seeing a virtual war on CNN). I felt powerless watching GWB send our troops into Iraq and Afghanistan, believing we were fighting the wrong war for the wrong reasons.

But now that Jordan has followed up on his strongest desire -- to serve his country and be part of a team -- I find myself drawn inexorably to pay more attention to issues like body armor and equipment, veterans benefits and other support services, troop deployments and more. From a starting point of near total ignorance, I've begun to acquire a new vocabulary in hopes of discerning the difference between a squad and a company, a battalion and a brigade. I've begun to pay attention to where our domestic military bases are located and what specialized training is offered at each one.

Before Jordan shipped to Fort Benning, Georgia, the only reference I had for it was knowing that is where the notorious Lt. William Calley of My Lai fame received his training. Now, I know it's a big, sprawling base on the Alabama-Georgia border. Now, I have plans to attend Jordan's graduation is basic military training on July 3.

All this is a prelude to two things:

1) Expressing my gratitude (again) to the cast and crew of "Telling Portland." See the post below.
2) Expressing my gratitude to Jim Weisenburg, a dad from suburban Portland who wrote a poignant op-ed piece for The Oregonian on the roller coaster of fear that he rides in anticipation of another son deploying to Iraq. His first son was killed over there. His second son is going back for a second stint with the Oregon National Guard.

It was my privilege to edit Jim's piece and to ask him for photos of his sons, David (deceased) and Jason, to go along with his own. In a brief conversation with him Thursday afternoon, he came across as a decent, honorable man whose objective in writing the piece was to honor the 2,700 Oregon Guard troops who'll be sent to Iraq this summer and recognize the emotional impact on their families, friends and co-workers.

Only a person without a heart could read Jim's piece without being touched. As a new military dad, it resonated deeply with me -- and it left me with nothing but admiration for a man who's lost his son at war but who is there again for his other son.

May God bless Jim and the brave men and women who serve our country, no matter their politics, no matter their station in life.

Another reason to celebrate Cinco de Mayo

Over the weekend and continuing through today, Portland's Waterfront Park has been the site of the annual Cinco de Mayo Fiesta. The event is sponsored by the Portland-Guadalajara Sister Cities Association and is the major fundraiser for a number of worthy causes.

This is the 25th anniversary of the fiesta, which is remarkable given Oregon's small population of Latinos and the overt hostility to brown people -- legal residents or not -- that surfaces all too often.

A lot of people mistakenly believe that May 5th is Mexican Independence Day. It's not. That's September 16.

Cinco de Mayo commemorates the underdog Mexican army's victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. (There's speculation within our extended family that our surname, Rede, came about as a result of some French soldier who was part of the invading army.)

But I seriously digress....

In our household, May 5th has an entirely different meaning. It's the day we adopted Jordan, 21 years ago. We drove to McMinnville, 40 miles southwest of Portland, with our caseworker to take custody of our little boy, then just four months old. Afterward, we had a memorable first meal at a local Wendy's while Jordan snoozed in a baby carrier that we placed on a table top. (Hey, maybe that greasy lunch explains his lifelong love of cheeseburgers.)

Today, Jordan is in Fort Benning, halfway through his basic training program, learning to be a soldier, while we're left with visual reminders of his absence. Not just the obvious stuff, like the broken skateboards hanging from his bedroom walls, but the less apparent ones, too. I opened the cupboard this morning and there, at eye level, was a box of Annie's Organic Shells & White Cheddar. One box would make enough for three people, but he'd wolf down the whole thing, typically while laughing out loud at some episode of "Family Guy" or "South Park" or something similar. I couldn't help but smile myself.

While the rest of the city observes Cinco de Mayo, Lori and I will have a quiet celebration of our own.