” I did 30 years in the Corps,” the Marine declared proudly, “and fought in three of my country's wars. Fresh out of boot camp, I hit the beach at Okinawa, clawed my way up the blood-soaked sand, and eventually took out an entire enemy machine gun nest with a single grenade. As a sergeant, I fought in Korea with General McArthur. We pushed the enemy inch by inch all the way to the Chinese border,always under a barrage of artillery and small arms fire. Finally as a gunnery sergeant, I did three consecutive combat tours in Vietnam. We humped through the mud and elephant grass for 14 hours a day, plagued by rain and mosquitoes, ducking sniper fire by day and mortar fire all night. In a Firefight, we'd fire until our arms ached and our weapons were empty, then we charged the enemy with bayonets.”
“Ah, you lucky bugger!” said the Sailor with envy. “All shore duty, huh?”