when he underwent surgery to remove a blood clot on his left testicle. He graduated in 1959 with a cumulative GPA of 3.30, ranking seventh in a class of seventy-two, still a notable accomplishment in a small private school consisting of students from educated and wealthy households. But clearly, had Charlie been diligent through his junior and senior years he could have done even better.
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One evening, very near his eighteenth birthday, like many new high school graduates, Charlie went out with a number of friends and became very drunk. When he returned home, his father reportedly lost all control of his temper. In a conversation with Father LeDuc, Charlie alleged that the elder Whitman had administered a severe punishment and had thrown Charlie into the swimming pool, where he nearly drowned.
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In spite of his intoxication, Charlie remembered the incident with bitterness. Whatever happened, Charlie finally had enough. Although it was widely reported that he had been accepted as an undergraduate student at Georgia Tech, he never associated himself in any way with the university. Instead, in an attempt to rid himself of his father's financial control and dominance, he applied for enlistment in the United States Marines on 27 June 1959, only three days after his eighteenth birthday. His mother Margaret, who undoubtedly witnessed the swimming pool incident, was the only person he told. She did not stand in his way. Charlie caught a bus to Jacksonville, Florida, and officially entered the marines on 6 July 1959 at the age of eighteen years and two weeks.
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Charlie Whitman had a very troubled childhood. While provided for in the material sense, he had little in the way of an emotional support system. In all significant pursuits, even as a very little boy, his father, himself the product of a broken and dysfunctional family (or arguably no family), sought relentlessly to instill a sense of excellence and near-perfection in his eldest. Charlie was never taught to handle failure; it simply was not an option. Few of his accomplishments were a consequence of intrinsic motivation. Success usually resulted from constant supervision, along with a desire to please, or avoid the wrath of, his overbearing father. His mother either did little to curb excessive expectations, or was powerless to do anything. For Charlie, mastery of one task simply meant that another awaited. Even after he had become a talented pianist, one of the youngest Eagle Scouts in the world, handled the largest paper route
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