"IT MUST BE THE UNIFORM"
When I was growing up, as long as I could remember, I always wanted to "Get into the Marines".  This was, no doubt, mostly fueled by my Uncle Ned's war stories about his experiences in World War II as a Marine tank commander in places like Saipan, etc.  The ONLY goal I had in my young life was to "get into the Marines"!  Since I was only 17 when I graduated from High School, you needed your parent's written permission to enlist in ANY branch of the military.  My mother always said, "I'll sign for the Navy, but NEVER the Marines!  Boy, am I glad she was solid on that!  Navy boot camp was hard enough for me when I endured that a few years later (I'll have a GREAT Navy boot camp story in a later missive).  During my "militant" early years, I would usually be dressed in an omnipresent piece of military clothing from ANY branch.  Most of the time I looked like the remnants of the German Army in retreat during the late stages of WW II.  I was around 14, as I recall, and every summer Tim and I would grow various vegetables to sell along our little roadside stand.  One day I went across the road, where our vegetable field was, to get some more peppers.  As I was waiting for traffic in order to cross back over the road, a big olive-drabbed U.S. Army bus stopped on the road and opened the door RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!  A cold chill went up my spine and 2 tons of lead fell to the bottom of my stomach!  I thought... Oh No!  He thinks I'm a real soldier waiting for him to pick me up in the Army bus to "go back to the base or something!  I'm not ready for this yet!  What do I do if he insists I get in or be AWOL...!!!  Since at the time I WAS wearing a U.S. Army olive drab combat shirt with BIG RED sargeant's stripes on the sleeves!  And I WAS STANDING along the side of the road, with an arm load of peppers, looking like I WAS waiting for a bus!  I was sure relieved after he opened the bus door right in front of me and then asked, "Do you have any fresh sweet corn?"  WOW, TALK ABOUT RELIEF!  As I recall, I took off the Army shirt with the big red sargeant's stripes and looked like "a civilian" for the rest of the day!
TO RETURN TO THE DIRECTORY, CLICK ON THE SOLDIER WITH THE ARM LOAD OF PEPPERS...
BUS STOP
TO ARMY BASE