For much of my life we didn’t divide people into age groups. Today, some of the millennials are making a bad showing and taking a beating for it. As Dr. King would suggest, let’s judge them by the content of their character.
Eric used to live next door. He’s got his M.D. now. He wants to fight the disease that killed his father and his brother and had a whack at him.
Patrick used to live across the street. He moved out of his mother’s basement about a year ago. He’s going to school on the G.I. bill and works about 40 hours a week managing two restaurants. He still finds time to come home and mow his mom’s lawn, and, while he’s at it, he mows mine too.
Let’s take a look at the millennials in uniform. I recently met a young man who was a community service officer. He wears a police officer’s uniform but does not carry a gun. He’s going to school to learn to be a full-fledged law enforcement officer. He’s taking the four-year course (better chance of getting a job). Before all that he was an infantryman—two tours in Afghanistan.
Somewhere today a pilot who is still young enough to take all the Gs a combat aircraft can pull will line up on something in the water that looks like a postage stamp. Then, a few seconds later, he will land on it. If he catches the wires he will get to do it again tomorrow.
The millennials aren’t just in mom’s basement. They are all over the place. Some are in Arlington National Cemetery buried next to the “boys” who waded ashore at Normandy.
I see some of these uniformed millennials doing ordinary things like eating a sandwich at a fast food shop that I patronize. Their uniforms are neat, and they walk erect, with confidence and pride. My bet is the guys are thinking about the girls. In their minds they call them “girls”—but be assured, they know the difference.
They might be married or they might be thinking about marriage and family. It is not easy to have a marriage and a family and wear a uniform.
Do these people, the productive ones who are looking after our defense, growing our food, building our buildings, and raising the next generation, think they are millennials? If they don’t, maybe we need another name for them, or we could stop lumping people into stereotypes that don’t really fit in many cases. We didn’t used to do that when I was young. That was probably for the best.
Jerry Powlas is the Technical Editor of Good Old Boat magazine.
