Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

My son graduated from ET/Com school at New London CT Submarine Base, Groton, CT. We are very proud of him and the graduation ceremony was quite moving. To get on the base we had to present driver's licenses, evidence of insurance and our sailor. He was required to accompany us. We didn't have any problem with that the first day. We toured around the area and drove back on base and dropped him at his barracks and drove off the base.

The second day was actually the day of the graduation. We followed him onto the base after signing in again (they made us sign in at security each day) and we attended the ceremony. Then he came off base with us and we drove around the area and later took him to a very nice dinner at the Koto Japanese Steak House. It couldn't have been a nicer day until we went to take him back on base.

The crew at gate 7 had changed I think from military to civilians, but I can't be sure since my recollections are clouded by outrage and anger. We came back on base as we had several times on that trip already and even more times since we'd been at the base some months before when he graduated from sub school This time all we wanted to do was take him back to his barracks and drop him off and go back to our hotel.

The gate guards told us that we'd be committing a felony and that they'd see that we spent 50 days in prison or something like that. We couldn't believe it. They said we could drove onto the base with him and over to the other gate but he would have to walk back to his barracks and we'd have to leave. We did that but we told the young man at the gate there that we were very angry at how we had been treated. We are the parents of this sailor. We had driven 488 miles to come to his graduation. We had formerly had two other sons in the military, one Marine who served in Desert Storm and one son who served in the Army. I served in the Army and my brother served in the Air Force and my father was Naval Academy class of 1940 and had risen to Rear Admiral. We were treated like terrorists and potential criminals.

My wife and I both told the sailor at the main gate that we were incensed. We had dropped our son at his barracks the day before and driven off base. But then that day no-one threatened us. Now frankly I served as a civilian scientist for the U.S. Navy from about 1962 when I was a student trainee to 1977 when I left the Civil Service to work for Sperry Univac Defense Systems Division. I had a Top Secret clearance and had been on and off Naval Air Stations and bases often. I told the young man that this was a lousy way to treat the family of sailors and it could hardly be good for retention. I think the policy just stinks. If they don't want us on their damn base they should hold the graduation ceremony off base. We're planning to protest our treatment. Bureaucracy being what it is, I don't expect much but more abuse. Someone needs to start reminding the Government that they work for us. The young man had the audacity to say that he was protecting me because of 9/11. I didn't feel protected. I felt abused and insulted. This isn't the way parents of three military sons should be treated. I might add that my sole daughter is married to a sailor that just completed his twenty years of service. If this is the way you treat your own, then you likely won't have as many recruits in the future.