Chicago Mayor's Son Enlists in Army at 29

[Rose Siding]

CHICAGO -- Mayor Richard Daley's 29-year-old son has enlisted in the Army and will soon report for duty in the airborne infantry.

"It's been in the back of my mind for some time," Patrick Daley told the Chicago Sun-Times in Tuesday's editions. "I left West Point during my freshman year when I was 18 years old and always remembered their motto, 'Duty, Honor and Country.' But I was so young and not really old enough to understand what it really meant. But I know now."

Daley finished college at the University of Illinois and got a master's degree in business from the University of Chicago in June. He could have pursued lucrative job offers, but said the Sept. 11 attacks played a role in his decision to enlist.

"Dad is very supportive and mom is doing just what mothers are supposed to do, worrying about her son," he said.

He's starting out as an ordinary enlisted man.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-daley-enlists,0,4644403.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines