Letters to the Editor
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Enlisted and officer are not the same thing
They will take an overage officer recruit to 30 in certain important specialties (math/stats/medical/computers, etc) because there are shortages. They will take a max age of 29 for the Marine Reserves. If he went to the Reserves, he's accurate.
I'm not sure about the grandiosity and the "little crazy". I'm feeling a little sorry for the guy. My students drop out, bump around and come back, just like this guy, without being called crazy and bipolar. Immature, yes, but not crazy. Calling him crazy for doing something you disaprove of (and by the way, people do build planes from scraps- I know a few physics and math majors who have done it successfully- the crazy ones build weapons from scraps))
makes me less than sympathetic to the LW. As for the family, they sound a bit controlling.
It sounds like he is trying to escape the pressures of marriage and family expectations, just like he was the first time he dropped out and wanted to build the plane (the criminal stuff sounds goofy, like a family member was exaggerating- I'm smelling an unreliable narrator). He's probably not ready for marriage. Let him go.
Now, thinking that war is a "great adventure" isn't smart, but it is not crazy, either. In rural areas, some people think like that.
Let him go, LW. Telling yourself he's crazy will only make you hold on. He's not crazy.