AFTER our son Greg was accepted by the U.S. Naval Academy, we went to a meeting where parents of third-year midshipmen spoke about the difficult plebe year. When the new plebes left the room, the veteran parents told us to be prepared for a middle-of-the-night phone call from our son or daughter wanting to come home.

Greg was at the Academy for a month when the phone rang late one evening. My husband answered it and handed the receiver to me, saying, “Greg would like to speak to you.”

I silently prayed I would find encouraging words. “Mom,” Greg said. “What do you use to keep shower walls clean and shiny?”
–Contributed to “Humor In Uniform” by Jane Stefanon