I won’t bore anyone with the minutiae of my life. I am a vet like any other vet. I’ve been around the world – literally. I’ve moved too much. I ate too many bad meals. I missed too many important events in my life – birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas and other holidays, funerals, and watching my kids grow. I stood too many extra watches. I froze. I melted. I ran many, many miles in my boots. I humped even more. I spent months at sea to get days ashore. But I don’t know that I could have lived any kind of different life but to join and serve. Like many a vet, I just don’t know any better.
I did my twenty and retired. Of course, for those who served thirty or more, my twenty was like punching out early. But I had to go. The last year and a half I kind of limped, again literally, to retirement. My body was beginning to go downhill from all the different exposures and just plain old abuse that is military life. So now I am retired and disabled. Yes, so like so many other vets.
What’s different about me is that I was a Chief Navy Corpsman who spent a lot of time at sea and with my favorite children – the United States Marines. But I was honored to have served with them and to have found a bond in that service that few in life can achieved. So Semper fi to all who can say, “once a Marine, always a Marine.” It’s as true as the fact that the sun rises in the East.
I would share more about my duty stations, ships, military deployments, etc., but again, this isn’t about me boring you with me. My wife gets that special pleasure.
So that’s my abbreviated story. Maybe along the line I’ll tell more of it. I don’t know. Again, I want to use this forum to talk about military and veterans’ issues. I want to sometimes rile at the powers to be, but for the most part inform and lift my fellow vets. Hopefully, I’ll have the sanity to do just that, no more and no less.