50cal

Three kids in the Corps




Barbie and Milton Odomon of Tulsa have a daughter, son and son-in-law serving in the Marines.



No one has to tell Barbie and Milton Odom what Semper Fidelis means.

The Marine Corps motto -- Latin for "always faithful" -- takes on a special significance in the Odom household.

How could it be otherwise with a daughter, a son and a son-in-law in the Marines?

That is a lot of Marines in one family, considering that neither Barbie nor Milton Odom served with the military.

In fact, their lives went in an opposite direction -- they were Christian volunteers working in Israel.

The Odoms met in 1978 while working at a northern Israeli kibbutz (collective communi ty), and they married there four years later.

They spent the first two weeks of their honeymoon in a bomb shelter because Israel had launched an invasion of Lebanon.

While in Israel, the Odoms befriended the director of their Christian group and his wife.

That couple had an infant son whom the Odoms often would baby-sit.

"I even changed his diapers," Barbie Odom joked.

She had every reason

to laugh about that.

Through happenstance, that infant grew up to become the couple's son-in-law -- Marine Sgt. Daniel Walker.

The Odoms have six children -- three daughters and three sons. Their youngest daughter, Jayme Odom, joined the Marines nearly four years ago.

Cpl. Jayme Odom, 21, is in Fallujah, Iraq, where she works in an intelligence unit, translating radio transmissions from the enemy. She can speak Arabic, including the Syrian and Iraqi dialects. She also knows Spanish and Hebrew.

Because of its top-secret nature, Jayme Odom cannot tell her parents much about her work, Milton Odom said.

Not even the good things, apparently.

"I wish I could tell you about all the wonderful things going on here, but I can't," she recently wrote to her parents.

The other member of the family in the Marines is the oldest son, Lance Cpl. Joseph Odom, 19, who is assigned to the 3rd Radio Battalion out of Hawaii.

Much like his sister, Joseph Odom also is doing top-security work and cannot tell his parents much about what he is doing.

All they know is that he is collecting intelligence in the Philippines.

The Odoms said their son and daughter scored well in military tests and performed admirably in training.

Jayme Odom completed her boot camp at Parris Island, S.C., and was the camp's honor graduate, her parents said.

Walker, 30, the couple's son-in-law, is not doing intelligence work, but his job is top security, nevertheless, the Odoms said.

He is a Marine criminal investigator based in San Diego.

He cannot publicly discuss what he does either, the Odoms said.

Walker lives in California with the Odoms' oldest daughter, Brandi Walker, 25, and their two daughters.

This summer, he will go to Iraq, and his wife and daughters will return to Tulsa to live with her parents.

Walker became the Odoms' son-in-law through pure chance.

The Odoms moved to Tulsa from Israel in 1983. In the meantime, the Walker family moved back to California.

Despite their distance, the two families stayed in touch.

One year, when Walker's mother was visiting the Odoms, he decided to come to Tulsa to see his mother. He was training at Fort Leonard Wood in central Missouri at the time.

Walker met Brandi Odom, romance ensued, and they married in 2003.

The Odoms are looking forward to the return of Jayme Odom, who has been in Iraq for seven months. She is due home this month.

Like all parents, the Odoms said they are quite proud of their children, not just the ones in the Marines.

Their other children are Shannon, 23, who recently graduated from the University of Oklahoma; Wesley, 17; and his brother, Chad, 15.

The last time the entire family was together was last summer, the parents said, so they are looking forward to the next time when they can all meet.

By that time, perhaps the Odoms will learn more about the exploits of their Marine family.

"I find it interesting they can't tell us what they do," Barbie Odom said.

On the other hand, her husband joked, "If they told us, they'd have to kill us," citing that familiar expression used by top-secret military operatives.

__________________


"Sweat dries, blood clots, bones heal. Suck it up. Be a Marine"

injunboy

nice family of pogues.. haha maybe the young guys will man up and do something

__________________
thanks dad for showing me the way, teaching me the language, and not leaving my mother...*L*

*original XXL *

jus like McSteamie

50cal

LMFAO!!!!!..........leave it to you to mention that fact......LOL!!!..........and I was trying be nice about it too....LOL!!!!

__________________


"Sweat dries, blood clots, bones heal. Suck it up. Be a Marine"

2lineCarrandMorgan

great story fiffty,
i was borned in a base hospital and spent the next 13 years as a brat we travled to japan by my age of 10 and then to okanawa i got the tast of civelian life..in my early teens.
my dad had a cripto secrity clearence and never talked.he stayed a lifer, i jumped ship.alto its part of me i can belive the ppl your spoke of are happy.



ps i should add between 5 and 10 my family were cilvlians but lived near the base,and my moms seconed marrage was to a lifer too.
so long and short it was not untill 13 or a little later i saw the world diffrently for what life was like for the rest of the ppl not in the service.

__________________
its said by,Deganewidah
I am Deganewidah, and with the Five Nations confederate lords I plant the tree of the Great Peace. . . . Roots have spread out from the Tree . . . and the name of these Roots is the Great White Roots of Peace. If any man or any nation outside the Five Nations shall show a desire to obey the laws of the Great Peace . . . they may trace the Roots to their source . . . and they shall be welcomed to take shelter beneath the Tree. . . .
for my Dad

then again somtimes i see a woman in the trees she only looks at me and i can only look at her i m what she is now....i thank her as i see her... then somedays i see her as she was and that i will never be,and still we look at each other,
hello my Mother my sister today i saw you more than befor ,now i know i have a need more to walk with you here than ever i knew befor. Thank you

.
“Something is at work in all of us,”
Peter Kinew


Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass..It's about learning to dance in
the rain.
for the wolf

storyteller

I guess I missed the joke. I wouldn't call a Marine family pogues. Ever. Just my opinion.

50cal

It's a Marine thing.....LOL!!!

__________________


"Sweat dries, blood clots, bones heal. Suck it up. Be a Marine"

Annie Fawn

Nice story. I wish them well.

__________________
Courage is just fear that has said it's prayers.

injunboy

the term pogues is collectively referring to the admin section of the marines.. its an endearing term, haha that more closely matches their true identity. they are easily identifiable standing next to a knuckledragger, grunt. trust me on that one. theres also the term pogey bait which is referring to junk food. both terms are common marine lingo. so now u know.

__________________
thanks dad for showing me the way, teaching me the language, and not leaving my mother...*L*

*original XXL *

jus like McSteamie

storyteller

Thanks Injunboy. Now I get it. The three Marines in my family are all grunts, and they talk about admin with, um, great affection.

I asked my brother about pogues in the Corp. He laughed and said its a good Irish word but not descriptive enough. He prefers ________ and
____________, and _____________.

Thanks again!

50cal

Pretty much we used it to describe anyone not in the Infantry field...LOL!!!.....

__________________


"Sweat dries, blood clots, bones heal. Suck it up. Be a Marine"