My grandfather di:ed alone in a small Ohio hospital while my parents called him “difficult” and stayed home….

When I told my parents, my father laughed.

“The military is what people do when they don’t have better choices.”

My mother looked worried in a polished, judgmental way and asked if I was upset about school. Tyler asked if I would get to shoot things, then lost interest when I told him training was more complicated than that.

The next day, I went to Grandpa’s house. He was sitting at the kitchen table with the newspaper and a cup of coffee that smelled too strong. I told him I had spoken to a recruiter. He folded the paper carefully and set it aside.

“Why Marines?”