>>Blessings to all who serve/d:
>>
>>If you served in the Military, let me know... branch and years...
>>
>>
>>Me: USMC/Navy 18 years...
>>
>>
>>John
>
>Salud, soldier. In all our disagreements I have never lost respect for that.
>
>Let me ask you a question. When did you enlist, and why?


I ran away from home at 15 ... took them a year to track me down and bring me home. I ran from York, Pa to Denver, Co, and landed a job on a survey crew, dragging the chain. They found me via my SSN and dragged me back home. I told my dad just as soon as I could get out of the house I was gone. Tried college for a couple of years, but was not ready to buckle down and at 20, I enlisted in the Marines. Looking back on those years now, I guess it was to prove to myself that if I couold make it through Marine training then I was not as worthless a human being as I was led to believe growing up. Plus it was a sure ticket away from my parents and Pa. That was 1970 and by 1977 both my parents were dead; yet both lived to see me have a successful career in the marines as a linguist, interrogator and translator.