His grades are average unfortunately, but he is learning arabic, and he has been training over the last 6 months using the SF regimen - he is among the fittest in his National Guard unit. We are of Indian origin (me and his mom were born in India - Sikh families, but without the turbans or beards - and he and his brother were born in Canada), and his dark good looks notwithstanding (he got them from his mom, of course), he could easily blend into most cultures in the developing world.
Read the thread and I will commend your son for his desire to serve his adopted country and you for instilling such values in him.
My son’s Marine recruiter told him one way to look at boot camp is from chow to chow. “I can get through this because in xx hours, I get chow.”
My son told me that even in the Marines there were recruits who were obviously trying to get through doing the bare minimum. He vowed to himself not to be one of those and graduated as squad leader, which got him a promotion.
For Mom and Dad - a couple of things. I tried to mail a letter every day. Sometimes it was hard to have much of anything to say. But, I sent comic strips, jokes, clippings from the local paper.
Also, I found an internet forum at leatherneck.com for Marine parents. I started a thread that went on for the duration of his training and even longer. Marines were quick to answer all my questions. There must be similar things for Army.
One last thing - I got a copy of the training matrix - a calendar of what he was doing each day. Kept one on the refrigerator and one at my desk at work.
Unfortunately, none of that will be a consideration. When it comes time to pick branch in ROTC, it’s purely a points system. Whoever has the most points, picks first. Points come from grades, PT, and scores during training. If he wants to be MI, he will need high scores because it is competitive.
You can’t join as an SF officer, that comes later, so he couldn’t even pick it if he wanted.