My husband served as a doctor with the Royal Australian Air Force for 9 years. He was frequently deployed overseas, to East Timor twice, as a member of the medical evacuation team repatriating victims of the second Bali bombing, and, although he is of Jewish heritage, into Lebanon during the Israeli-Lebanese conflict to provide medical assistance during the evacuation of Australian citizens out of the conflict zone. My four year old son knows none of this as my husband entered civilian medical practice just before he was born.
The HMAS Cairns naval base opened its gates recently to the public. I felt some ambivalence prior to our visit that was heightened when I realised they were letting children handle unloaded weapons at one display. We easily bypassed this station though, focusing instead on the displays that promoted the rescue role that the Australian military often fulfils.
Once home I told my son that his father was once like the men he had met at the base. “But they’re soldiers Mum. Dad is not a solider.”
I got out my old scrapbook of media clippings: one photo showing his father in uniform tending to injured people, another showing his father carrying a young girl with cerebal palsy down a gangplank. The photos convinced him I wasn’t playing a trick, that Dad must once have been a soldier. The conversation inevitably turned to guns, and whether his Dad had one. We were able to discus how although his Dad had been required to carry a gun, he didn’t like them as he had seen just how badly they can hurt people. By this time my ambivalence concerning the outing had vanished, we had used a visit to a military base to give credibility to why I don’t allow gun play in our home, at the same time as instilling pride in his father’s military service.
What a wonderful way experience. I’m sure your son must now be looking at his dad as even more of a hero. And I like the anti-gun lesson, too.
Thanks Michele. One of those days that works out much better than we would have imagined.