re: #206 pre-Boomer Marine brat

*grins and holds up hands* … No contest! No contest!

I went in the Navy (learned electronics) but I remain a dyed-in-the-wool Marine brat. Dad enlisted in December of ‘39. When they created E-8 and E-9, the first 50 E-8s were selected for meritorious promotion. He was one of those.

/insufferable pride mode “off”

My dad enlisted in 61. Spent a lot of time in Vietnam (a silver star and two bronze stars on his service ribbon, not sure how much time that translates to). After the war, he became a linguist, learning Russian, and earned both dolphins and wings. Spent much time listening to Soviet radio broadcasts. He also helped worked on translating russian documents related to various SAM missiles, which work he was always proud to claim helped the Israelis win against the Soviet-supplied Arabs in the 70’s conflicts. He died last month after Christmas. I could brag about him all day.