My Goal & Life Before ENMS

My Goal

I'm Gary, the bass drummer in the above picture. My identification number at the Elsinore Naval and Military School (ENMS) was 151 -- a number forever burned into my soul. Here are some memories during my two year stay at ENMS in the 7th and 8th grades during the 1963 -- 1964 -- 1965 school years. I've converted old 8 mm movies that my parents took and present them here for all to see under the title of ENMS Memories on YouTube.com. My goal here is to share my story and hopefully it may stimulate viewers to share their stories with others -- even if you never attended ENMS. Who knows, you may be a parent considering sending your kid to military school and this web site may give you some insight as to what military schools have to offer. Please note that I am working on this blog at a rather sporadic pace. Also, for privacy reasons, I'll only identify cadets by their first name or initials. To access posts, please use the 'blog archive" on the right. Finally, the change from black to red type is just my style for indicating a change in the message context much like writing a new paragraph. Ready to take a ride? Let's begin! [Question: Is the ENMS band in the above picture performing at the beginning or end of the routine Sunday parade? Answer: With the platoons gone in the background, the parade is coming to an end with the ENMS band the last to pass and review -- following the Junior School platoon. Since we supplied the music / cadence for all cadets it made sense to have the ENMS band behind everyone keeping them all in step. Question: Who's the officer standing there with his back to us? Answer: That's CPT Fred V. Rosenberger, Assistant Commandant. Question: Is this the 1963-64 ENMS band or the 1964-65 ENMS band? Answer: It's the 1963-64 ENMS band because cadet Bob who became the 1964-65 ENMS band leader is in the band ranks playing snare drum -- first drum row center.]

Life Before ENMS

[Note: Photo L to R: Gma, Steve, Janet, Gary (me), Mom, Dad] I went to ENMS because I was the product of a troubled family and my parents reached out to ENMS for help. We resided in Las Vegas, Nevada at the time (1963). I had just finished the 6th grade. Both parents worked very hard in the grocery industry (he a meat cutter and she a grocery checker). They were having an increasingly difficult time keeping it all together as their three children grew and developed. A lot of the parenting responsibility defaulted to older sister Theresa Janet and she was getting very stressed out by it. So were my parents. In fact, the entire family was wearing out. My grandparents, however, didn't understand why Steve and I were sent to ENMS. We were good kids. [Note: In the 6th grade I decided to invite some of my classmates to my house (first and last time I ever did that) to celebrate my 11th birthday party. I didn't know if anyone from class would come but just about everyone I invited came and they brought gifts. The party got started around 5 pm and my folks got off work and came home around 7 pm. There I was doing the twist, slow dancing, and doing the "Limbo" and really having a great time. Several pretty girls were there as well and they were paying me attention. When my parents took it in Mom rushed back to the store and bought cake and ice cream to make up for my lack of planning. So, the folks got the idea that sending big sister off to a girls boarding school in Arizona might tone things down. Sure sounded logical to Steve and I. Certainly would solve our biggest problem -- our big "bully" sister. But, now here's the kicker, she threatened to run away if they sent her to boarding school and that's when the tide turned against Steve and I and in her favor. You see my Dad's deer hunting buddy had sent his son to ENMS and that nurtured the idea that maybe if Steve and I went that would provide the breathing room the family needed. Although our parents would have a difficult time paying tuition, they managed to do it at least for two years in an attempt to relieve the family stress and strain. (Had they been able to afford it, I'm sure Steve and I would have remained at ENMS and graduated 12th grade.) Steve and I adamantly objected to going to ENMS but we weren't smart, big or strong enough to do anything stunning like threaten to run away like big sister. However, after two years at ENMS, Steve and I began to excel and seriously became integrated into the ENMS culture. When our folks couldn't afford to send us back for a third year, we felt like we had once again lost our family -- only this time our ENMS family of brothers and commandants. After going to the 2002 ENMS Reunion, I reflected about what it might have been like had I remained at ENMS all the way through high school. Oh, by the way, that son of Dad's deer hunting buddy that went to ENMS? He went AWOL during my first year there and didn't return to ENMS the next year, my second year. Looks like going AWOL at ENMS paid off for some. I just didn't have the courage. I knew my Dad would be extremely upset with me if I did such a thing as to go AWOL. Did going to ENMS solve the family problem? Nope. Although being apart for two years made us realize how much more important we were to each other, it didn't really take the stress of the family, in fact it got worse. Didn't take long for the dysfunctional family dynamics to re-emerge once we were all back together again pushing each others hot buttons. Only this time, Steve and I were older, bigger, and much wiser. [Note: When I disclose to others that I went to a military school for two years during junior high school, often the response or expression on their face is, "What did you do that was so bad to result in your being sent to military school?" This is especially true of those with an aversion to anything military. Although Steve, me and the Beaver may have thought we had a lot in common, our parents were NOT June and Ward Cleaver and big sister Janet was NOT Wally! We were a family struggling to get by and my parents not having the capability to deal with it passed it over to ENMS. Many parents with similar problems, turned to ENMS. At the 2002 reunion I was pleasantly surprised to learn that many former cadets actually had a blast being sent to ENMS. But the vast majority of cadets in the senior school, in my opinion, would have rather been somewhere else.]