Yesterday in the ATL airport I found myself surrounded by teenage guys heading off to Army basic training. I’ve spent the summer reading books about fathers, sons, & class. Looking at their faces, eyes, posture & making small talk with their new “friends,” I broke down.

I could see the data come to life. Generally, lower income/working class men enlist in the US Army straight out of high school while kids of privilege go off to college. They had no backpacks because they didn’t need them. They had cell phones & manilla envelopes w/their papers.

Like me, a Delta pilot noticed them. He walked up excited and said, “Hey, you guys look like you’re headed off to basic?!!” In unison, about 7 of them said, “Yes, sir!!” “Which branch?,” he asked. “Army!” Jokingly, “nooo, that’s the wrong one!” He was Navy or Airforce.

He then gave them about a 20 second pep talk. He spoke to them about how much the country needed them. I lost it. Even I felt inspired. It was too much! Typically 18 year-old bootcamp guys come from communities that the wealthy mock & hold in contempt.

The level of disrespect shown to 18-year-old enlisted men by middle-class communities makes me sick at times. Joining the military is often a threat issued to boys of privilege if they don’t get their “act together.” This pilot, a veteran himself, did the exact opposite.

He celebrated them. I looked at one of the guys eating a Qdoba meal & on top of his manilla folder was a brand new burgundy leatherbound Bible. I lost it again. I was imagining a tearful, worried, scared mother/grandmother giving this lad the “Book of Protection: God’s Word.”

If I could have taken pictures of their faces, they told stories: life’s been hard. Few smiles. Heads down. Slumped shoulders. Baggy clothes. Shaggy hair. Worn out sneakers or Vans. I saw the data I’ve spent the summer reading. Class & masculinity. I lost it again & walked away.

I thought of the Bible guy’s mom vs. the crying mom of the rich kid from Memohis whose son is headed to Ole Miss wearing boat shoes to binge drink & rush the right frat to get him a Kappa Delta girl. I was imagining the Army mom saying to frat mom, “What are you crying for?”

In America, the sons of the white working class enlist in the military so that the sons of the white upper classes can have the freedom to binge drink, wear Vineyard Vines clothes, play video games, college football tailgate & “hopefully” hook-up with “hot” sorority girls.

I was fishing this summer. My guide lost his left foot to a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. That’s why *his* mom was probably crying when he left for boot camp out of high school. Then I had a thought about a new protocol, perhaps:

When the working class sons enlist out of high school to face almost immediate injury or risk of death, the middle-class guys headed to college should have to throw the enlisted guys a going away party & write to them during basic trainging and their tour of duty. Annnnd....

after these men serve how many years they choose, the privileged guys should pledge to honor and respect the veterans who served while they partied & complained about getting denied their dream internship. Their enlisted peers didn’t have it so easy.

I’m imaging what would happen if college students had any idea how blessed they were to complain about possibly not having a college football season. My fishing guide would probably love to have his foot back and to have experienced the kinds of things students complain about.

Some of them looked so scared. As I watched them walk in pods of 5 to 10, the alpha guys stood out clearly as they led packs of lads through the airport. Right out of the articles on male dominance hierarchies. It’s real! Every group has an alpha.

I wish there was way for college guys to see that going to college is not to be taken for granted and that they have peers standing in the gap so they can enjoy “the college experience.” Not sure how to do that.