An excellent organization for people with military mad sons

My son has always been crazy about the military. Although we live in Marin, which is not a community that's very friendly to the military, when he was five he spent the entire year wearing only camo. Even now, at least 20% of his clothes are camo, and he likes to show up at his grandmother's retirement community so attired (much to the delight of the residents, many of whom are World War II veterans).

Because of his passion for all things military, one of the organizations to which we belong is the Navy League. The Navy League's mission statement explains a lot about it:

The Navy League of the United States is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating our citizens about the importance of sea power to U.S. national security and supporting the men and women of the sea services and their families.

That's all well and good, but it sounds about as exciting as a high school civics class. The real excitement of the Navy League lies in the fact that, if you live in a coastal community where Navy ships dock, you get ship tours. And not just tours were you tromp on board with a thousand other people and shuffle through popular sites on the deck. No. These are the real deal, where one of the ship's officers takes you on a private tour of the entire, leaving out only the crew's quarters out of respect for their privacy. My son was in hog heaven, my husband and I were fascinated, and my daughter couldn't wait to leave after our last in-depth tour.

So, if you or someone you love is interested in things military, I highly recommend the Navy League as a way to get a really good look at, and amazing knowledge about, the United States Navy.