Five Interesting Things Most People Don’t Know About The Navy
It wasn’t just a job, but the adventure of a lifetime.
Before I rose my right hand to take the Oath of Enlistment in Jackson, Mississippi back in September, 1981, the biggest boat I’d been on was a bass boat — and then only once. But my dad — who had left home when I was two — had been in the Merchant Marine, and (in addition to getting away from the Mississippi Delta) I wanted to see what kind of life he had led. I’d never seen him since then, and only talked to him once over the phone before he drowned in Hong Kong harbor in 1974, but I still wanted to know.
Besides, at the time the Navy’s recruitment slogan was, “It’s not just a job. It’s an adventure.” It turns out that was the truest, most fact-based advertising slogan in the history of advertising.
The thing about adventures is, well, they’re not vacations, and more often than not, they involve blood, sweat, tears, and heartache, and it’s not until after the adventure’s over that one really begins to appreciate what one has endured. Adventures also teach lessons one never expected to learn. Here’s a few that I learned along the way.
