Having a dad in the service was helpful. I was forever meeting new kids, going to new schools, moving to new neighborhoods. I was encouraged when I attended the American School in Germany.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
My parents taught me service - not by saying, but by doing. That was my culture, the culture of my family.
I was raised in a family dedicated to public service.
My whole life was service to people and the Fatherland.
As a child, I lived in Germany at the Ramstein air force base, where my dad sang at a nightclub in Kaiserslautern. My parents couldn't afford a babysitter, so when I was, like, ten or 11, I would go with them to the bar until two in the morning.
My dad was in the Army, so what was happening internationally and nationally was always important to my family.
There's a tradition of public service in my family. I'm one of three boys that joined the military. My father was in the Peace Corps.
I was raised in a spirit of the importance of service to your fellow man. My mom is a senator back home in South Africa. My father is a very caring and generous individual.
All of my high school male teachers were WWII and/or Korean War veterans. They taught my brothers and me the value of service to our country and reinforced what our dad had shown us about the meaning of service.
The Boy Scouts, of course, had an influence on me because I learned about service in the community.
My father was very clear; I had to have an ordinary upbringing. I was put to work as a lowly-paid trainee after college. I didn't like it at the time, but I can't help but feel that that was probably the best thing for me.