Guess Who? With Kevin
Inspired by Paul Harvey’s The Rest of the Story, Kevin has crafted a captivating series of “guess who” articles, which he’s generously sharing with our readers!
Such is the romance of the sea, its appeal especially to the young, that small boys still dream of running off to join the Navy.
And so did this one boy.
His big brother had been a Navy man and had many exciting recollections of his service. Occasionally the brother’s Navy comrades were dinner guests, and what stories they told!
Reliving their adventures through countless all-but-sleepless nights, the small boy grew impatiently into his teens.
Now of suitable age to enlist in the armed forces, he discussed the matter with his big brother and received only encouragement. Perhaps, with the brothers’ help, the boy might enter officer’s training—might go into the Navy as a midshipman aboard a real Navy war vessel!
It was a thrilling prospect. All that remained was to convince the boy’s mother.
The proposal was greeted with a heavy sigh. Mother had bravely accepted all the challenges in her life: the loss of her husband only five years before, the difficulty of rearing more than a half dozen young ones all by herself. And here was another challenge, to give up the teenager she still perceived as her baby.
Mother, brave once more, gave her consent. The boy might enlist in the Navy if he wished.
And he did.
Surely this was the happiest time of the young fellow’s life, a joyous drama full of glitter and grandeur and great expectations.
Scene Two:
The boy is standing before his mother in a dashing midshipman’s uniform. He is bidding her farewell. His belongings are already on board the ship, and the vessel is ready to sail. Goodbye, he tells his mother. He will miss her.
That’s when it happened. In an unexpected and uncharacteristic outpouring of emotion, Mother began to sob.
This woman, who had already endured so much heartache, refused to endure anymore. Her son must not board that ship. He must not go into the Navy. He must stay and be strong for the rest of his family—especially for her.
Big Brother was there, trying to persuade Mother of the Navy’s virtues.
The teenager, in the midshipman’s uniform, was silent for a long while. Then he spoke:
He wanted a Navy career for himself—but not if it meant bearing the memory of his mother’s grief. Much as it disappointed him, he would return his uniform and would order his belongings ashore.
Of all the young men who might have left home in search of adventure and did not, of the world’s many “almost midshipmen” the boy you have met was just one more.
Yet, how might any other decisions, on his behalf, have affected the Revolutionary War? How a mother’s eleventh-hour anxiety—for preventing one young man from ascending through the ranks of the Navy–a boy of fifteen, handsomely clad, bags packed and on board, prepared to embark on quite a different adventure than for which you remember him.
A boy of fifteen. His name? George Washington.
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