If anyone is interested in what medal the Navy Cadet is wearing~

It is the National Service Defense Medal

The criteria is that it is awarded to anyone who serves on active duty in the U.S. military during a designated time period. In this case the time period began on 9/11/01 to a date yet to be determined for service during the War on Terrorism.The National Defense Service Medal is further authorized to students at the service academies.
Reservists are also eligible for the award.

Do you know if that is the son who joned the Marines, or is that the Naval Academy son? I would assume a Marine could also go to the Academy, and it could be the son on the left who is now at Annapolis.

We used to call the NSD medal the "Gedunk" medal -- "gedunk" being Navy slang for the ship's snack bar.

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Putting the partisan signature on hiatus until I get back. Then... WATCH OUT!!!

If you graduate from the USNA in Annapolis, you are a commissioned officer in either the Navy or Marines.

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Putting the partisan signature on hiatus until I get back. Then... WATCH OUT!!!

No need to get snippy. I was posting for the benefit of folks who might not know that a midshipman CAN be a Marine.

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Putting the partisan signature on hiatus until I get back. Then... WATCH OUT!!!

Or he could be the finance son, and the other son is in Iraq.

OK, his youngest son is a Marine.

Next Generation Of McCains Joins Up
Sen. John McCain's Son, Jimmy, To Become A U.S. Marine

PHOENIX, July 29, 2006

(AP) The youngest son of Arizona Sen. John McCain has joined the Marine Corps and will begin basic training in California in September, according to a report in Time magazine.

Jimmy McCain, 18, will spend three months in boot camp, followed by a month of specialized training before being assigned to a unit. With 25,000 of 178,000 active duty Marines in Iraq now and 80,000 having done tours of duty there or in Afghanistan in recent years, his chances at deployment to a war zone are high.

"I'm obviously very proud of my son," the elder McCain told Time for a story in editions going on sale Monday, "but also understandably a little nervous."

McCain's communications director, Eileen McMenamin, confirmed the accuracy of the Time story but said the Senator would not comment further Saturday.

McCain, 70, has been an outspoken supporter of the war in Iraq, saying just last month during a Senate debate on a troop-withdrawal resolution that leaving Iraq would "risk disaster."

"Withdrawal and fail, or commit and succeed," McCain said.

McCain said having a son serving in the war would not change his position.

A Republican considered a possible presidential candidate in 2008, McCain served as a Navy pilot and was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967 and held as a prisoner of war for more than five years.

Sen. McCain's father, Admiral John S. McCain Jr., commanded U.S. forces in the Pacific during Vietnam, where he was responsible for air strikes that may have endangered his imprisoned son. His grandfather, Admiral John S. McCain Sr., served in the Pacific in WW II and was present at the Japanese surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri.

Another of Sen. McCain's seven children, Jack, 20, just completed his first year at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.

Sen. McCain said Jimmy was well aware of the family's Navy background but had friends in the Corps, had read about the service branch and "he just wanted to join up.

"I don't think there's anything unusual about Jimmy," McCain said. "There are, thank God, lots of young men and women like him."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...n1847378.shtml

I'll bet you had a bunch of those snack bar medals.

most do not serve for the medals , most serve because they realise thats how we remain a great country

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Aint but three things in this world thats worth a solitary dime,
But old dogs and children and watermelon wine.
Tom T. Hall
http://www.obamatruth.org/

That's really a myth. People join the military for many reasons. It can be a good career move, a way to get money for school, get training, get to travel, get away from home, full time employment as well as a method of being patriotic. Stating "most" do it as a way to "serve" isn't really honest and even the military's own surveys do not indicate that. This is not to say there is anything wrong for joining for those reasons. And of course, family tradition.