Were/are you in a Military?

[Don Corleone]

That is sad. Sorry, man. But the Navy fed me very well. Never once saw the proverbial MRE. Those poor grunts. They make them hump around, then don't feed them real food and make them wear green. Very sad.

No, not sad. It was a disappoinment I had to get over though. See, I was raised from day 1 to be a submarine officer. I used to play sub-hunter with my friends when everyone else was playing cowboys & indians. I had my room plastered with crew photos & ship photos. My dad was on subs, and when he left the Navy, he went to work at Electric Boat (the submarine shipyard) and he designed & built them.

My heart condition (which is laugable, it wasn't by the time I applied) wasn't the navy's fault, it was genetics. Truth be told, the recruiter was really, really nice. He could have held me to the commitment and put me on surface ships or worse, in years of desk service someplace. But as it was 1988, and the military was trying to scale back, he was pretty kind and said "Look, I know all you want is subs. You'll never get into nuclear power school or sub school with your heart condition. If you really want to take an administrative job someplace, call me in a month. Otherwise, I'm doing to do you a favor and declare you medically unfit".

By the way, Gawain, I think you owe Aenlic one-night's bar tab. One beer won't cut it in this case. I think it was really big of you to apologize, but don't be surprised when it doesn't make everything sunshine and roses immediately afterwards.

Finally, to anybody that served, thank you, and I owe you a beer/wine/drink. I've never been in airport travelling and passed up the chance to buy a serviceman/woman a drink. That's my little contribution I guess.