Beware-things are not always as they seem.

My son Alex joined the Navy to be a SEAL. He enrolled in the DEP for a year and a half. He passed his PST test over and over each time raising his score. He scored 92 on his ASVAB. He got 1200 on his SAT's. He had his pick of any job in the Navy, but wanted to go SEAL. At some point during boot camp, he started getting very sick. His blood work came back that he was anemic, and he lost his SEAL contract. He was given a choice to go undesignated on a ship for a year or go to Seabee school in Gulfport. He chose Gulfport- as the lessor of the two evils. He graduated from SF division 818 even though he was very sick, losing weight, and anemic. When he got to Gulfport to begin his A school, he encountered several incompetent military doctors who misdiagnosed him for the next couple of months. He lost over 30 pounds and was told that he could soon be discharged from the Navy because he was unfit for duty. They wanted him to go to a psychologist for evaluation when finally a doctor with a brain did a simple stool test. The result was that Alex was suffering from salmonella poisoning. His medical records showed that he was not anemic prior to entering the Navy, and obviously he was poisoned while in boot camp. As a result of losing his SEAL contract and signing bonus, he is now on the ground doing hard labor at Camp Leatherneck in southern Afghanistan. Since he's been there he was stabbed in the stomach by an insurgent and found a live IED on the base where he works. (the muppets must be in charge of the base security) His redeployment was delayed by our Commander in Chief by at least two months. I support Alex with all my heart. It is his dream to apply for SEAL again and go to Coronado for BUDS training.
He hasn't had the greatest experience so far in his young career in the Navy, but we are very hopeful that it will turn around soon.