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Thanks. :-) Now you will chuckle at this. I checked your about page and this came to mind.

As a family we've become friends with people over near the coast in our state (NC). They're dear people and have become like family to us. My kids call them Grandma and Grandpa, and these people have MORE adopted grandkids that I can count!

Bill was active duty in the USN for 36 years. He was up for Admiral when he retired. His is an amazing story. He told me that he joined as an E-1 who couldn't read. He credits his wife with teaching him to read. Over the next 36 years, he achieved several bachelors degrees and two masters, in addition to USN sponsored education. He told me the most difficult time in his entire career was when he was "promoted" from Chief Master Petty Officer to Ensign! :-)

Anyway...before we knew them better, my family and I were at their house and his "award board" was in the living room. We're an Air Force family and I spent 13 years active duty as a non-commissioned guy in communications (basically). My wife looked at his board and her eyes got BIG and she started to say something when Bill walked into the room and I could tell she would have said something if he hadn't been there. He started explaining all the medals and ribbons, and said that his cumulative efforts of 36 years were all stuck to that board.

I couldn't figure out what was wrong with my wife. My wife is a neuroscience BSN/RN and was the staff nurse at the medical aid station where we were stationed for most of the 1990s, so she had a pretty good knowlege of rank/grade structure and such.

When we were finally on our way down the road, she said, "Bill must gotten into BIG trouble to have spent 36 years in the Navy and ONLY retire as a Captain!". They live way, WAY off the main road on nearly 100 acres and we were about half way down their half mile driveway when she said this. I came to a stop and looked at her sniggering. She couldn't figure out WHAT my problem was. I said, "Sweetie, Bill was an O-6, pending promotion to O-7 when he retired!". I could see her eyes darting back and forth as she mentally associated O-6 to "something" in terms of collar brass.

I could tell she was counting...."O-1, O-2, O-3...". All of the sudden she put her hand to her mouth and said, "OH MY GOSH. He retired as a Bird Colonel!"

I laughed, and she laughed. :-) It was even funnier later on when we told Bill! He got a big hoot out of it!

He did tell me though that sometimes he has to call a local USMC base, and that he always mentions that he is a "USN Captain", and not a measly "USMC Captain". He says people are more "helpful" this when they have this knowlege. :-)