Preps

Softball: Serving her purpose

By IZZY GOULD
Published December 2, 2007

LAND O'LAKES - The tour of West Point's campus was a lesson in military history topped off with a cold splash of truth.

No one enters the U.S. Military Academy with blinders, which is what a dozen or so parents gathered at Gen. George S. Patton's monument quickly learned from long-tenured Army coach Jim Flowers. Leslie Aubuchon was there with her daughter, Alexis, on an official visit.

The two striking comments Leslie heard: More men than woman have applied to West Point since 9/11; every graduate since 9/11 has gone on to serve in a combat area.

"People would look at the person next to them with shifty eyes," Leslie said. "People are very apprehensive."

Leslie is proud Alexis has chosen a military education. The Land O'Lakes senior recently was accepted to West Point, where she will play softball.

Leslie, who grew up in a military family and married a Navy man, has strong opinions when it comes to kids and the armed forces.

"It bothers me greatly to listen to people tell me how wonderful America is and how much they love the good old USA but their kid's not going to join the military," Leslie said. "... As far as I'm concerned, I think every single male and female should serve at least two years in the military."

Never any doubt

Alexis began writing letters to Flowers as a freshman.

The Military Academy had everything she wanted in a university: prestige, rigorous admissions standards and a place to play Division I softball outside the state.

Alexis is a talent on the field, particularly with her bat. She hit .446 with three home runs, three doubles and six triples as a junior. She wanted a university that would make her work hard, where she would learn discipline and mingle with diversity.

Then there's the obvious question about serving in the military. Upon graduation, Alexis is required to serve a minimum of five years active duty.

"It's really contradictory for me," Alexis said. "My friends call me Barbie. I'm very, very girly."

When Alexis met with senators during an application process that took the better part of three years, she talked about wanting to give back without any reservation of serving in the military.

"It's something the average American doesn't do," Alexis said. "When I tell people I'm going to the Military Academy, they ask if I'm scared about going to war. ... I let it go in one ear and out the other. ... When you make the decision to go to the Military Academy, you know war is a possibility."

A longtime passion

The passion to serve in the military runs deep in the Aubuchon family .

Leslie's husband, Brad, served two tours of duty in Iraq. Her father, William Aubuchon, is a retired Army lieutenant colonel who flew helicopter missions to retrieve soldiers in Vietnam.

Leslie still remembers growing up in a mobile home in Starkville, Miss., listening to her mother shriek the word "over" into the phone. An operator moderated those early 1970s overseas calls between her parents, flipping a switch the way someone would press the button on a two-way radio.

Leslie knew all about the military lifestyle, moving around the country to stints in Alabama, Georgia, New York, Texas (twice), Virginia and Washington, D.C. She also lived in Germany three years. When she returned to Starkville to attend Mississippi State in the 1980s, Leslie had an opportunity to join the military. She passed.

"Now I could just kick myself in the butt for not doing it," Leslie said. "When I went to Mississippi State, they were begging people to join the military for nursing. I said, 'No, I don't want to do it right now.'"

And when confronted with the dangers Alexis faces upon graduating from the Military Academy, she remembers how dangerous everyday life can be. Alexis and her younger brother, Austin, were in a car accident in September when a van clipped Alexis' truck, cutting through an intersection on a red light. The truck rolled three times and was totaled, but the siblings wore seatbelts and walked away unscathed.

"Had they not been belted in, I was told by the police and paramedics they would have been dead," Leslie said. "... When you see that and you think of the chances of your kid getting hurt in the military, there's not much difference."

[Last modified December 1, 2007, 20:06:59]