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Originally Posted by Team Sergeant
Great post Gypsy!
I could not imagine being in Robert Jr. shoes.
I wonder if he'll go SF???
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Thanks TS, I'm sure it must be daunting...
Here's another article, it was posted elsewhere and there was no link.
July 21, 2006
One of nation's highest decorated heroes to speak at son's graduation
Bridgett Siter
Bayonet staff
Retired Col. Robert Howard recalls a conversation he had with his son 14 years ago. The elder Howard, Robert Sr., one of the most highly decorated veterans this country has ever known, had just spoken at a Vietnam memorial ceremony somewhere in the hills of Virginia.
Having recently retired with 36 years of service, the five-tour combat veteran, three times nominated for the Medal of Honor, was becoming a popular speaker with pro military organizations around the country. But it was one of the first times his 8-year-old son heard him speak about his experience in Vietnam.
Robert Jr. sat quietly beside his father in the front seat of the car on the way back home. Finally he broke the silence.
"Dad, would you want me to go to war?"
"No, son. I don't ever want you to go to war," his father replied. "But if you do go to war and serve our country, I'll be very proud of you."
Monday, Robert Sr. spoke from his home in Texas, where he was packing for a trip to Fort Benning. He'll be the guest speaker today when his son graduates from 2nd Battalion, 58th Infantry Regiment, on Sand Hill. After Airborne School and the Ranger Indoctrination Program, the younger Howard will likely see combat soon enough.
"I'm very proud of him. Our country needs him, and he stepped up," said Robert Sr., the Opelika, Ala., native who earned a battlefield commission and the Medal of Honor in 1969.
His awards and medals, which include the nation's three highest military honors and eight Purple Hearts, number more than Audie Murphy's, a fact officials noted when Robert Sr. was inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame last year.
But that's not what he wanted to talk about Monday. Instead, he spoke about the father he never knew, the son he barely knew, and the reasons they both joined the Army.
Robert Sr., who was born in 1939, lost his father and four uncles to World War II.
His mother fell apart, and her mother stepped in to care for the boy and his older sister.
Life was rough, Robert said, but he was loved well and taught well. He grew up very proud of his military heritage, with no ill feelings toward the system that drafted his father or the enemy that took his life.
"Grandma taught me never to have hate in my heart," he said. "You don't have to have hate to be a good Soldier.
"You have to appreciate what you're fighting for. Hate should never enter into it.
"I can honestly say I never hated the enemy. I had respect for him, and I'd kill him if I had to, but I never hated him," Robert Sr. said.
The senior Howard enlisted when he was 17 in the summer of 1956, 50 years before his son left California to follow in his footsteps.
The Army was something the younger Howard had always thought about, though he can't say exactly why. Certainly, he didn't grow up hearing about his father's exploits.
He did, however, frequently attend military functions, including Medal of Honor conventions, where he was surrounded by men he now knows were heroes of the highest caliber.
"I was too young to realize. I figured everybody's dad was like mine," Robert Jr. said. "He didn't talk about it much. I knew him as a civilian."
The elder Howard is very humble, his son said. That, coupled with lengthy separations - the day his son was born, Robert Sr. got orders to Korea for two years - and his parents' divorce, made for a long-distance relationship between father and son.
It wasn't until Robert Jr. was in high school that he learned the extent his father is revered by others.
He was assigned to write a report on someone he admired. Online, he found several Web sites and dozens of references to his father and the actions that earned him more Medal of Honor nominations than any other Soldier in history.
"That's when I started to grasp what he did. There are not many men like him. There probably never will be," Robert Jr. said.
Maybe that's why the younger Howard put off his dream of joining the Army.
Living in the shadow of a hero can be daunting. Filling his shoes - his combat boots - can be darn-near impossible.
"I'm just an ordinary private," Robert Jr. said. "There's no way to live up to what he did. I'm just going to be the best Soldier I can be."
Robert Jr. said his father never pressured him to enlist, and he got sidetracked in high school, where plans for a military career took a back seat to football, baseball and track.
He played football at California Polytechnical State University while studying political science, and spent a year working in the orchards and fields around Dos Palos. But something was missing.
"I tried the college thing. That just wasn't it," he said. "I wanted something other than a normal job. Something with more honor. To me, that's what this is all about."
As for honor, the elder Howard, who retired from the Department of Veterans Affairs in January, said he's honored and humbled and a little bit nervous at the prospect of speaking to the troops with his son in their midst.
"It's quite something when you've got your son standing there in formation," he said. "He's real smart, very smart. He had plans to be this or that, and he could be anything he wants to be. But his country needs him. I'm proud of him."
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