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My enlistment in the DEP (Marine Corps) was October 29, 1979. I will never forget that day. I was just a 17-year-old kid still in my senior year in high school. But I wanted to have something lined up after my graduation. So many of my classmates were yapping about what college they got accepted into and then they'd ask me what my plans were as if to rub it in that they just saw me washing dishes or bagging groceries after my graduation.

So I was supposed to report to boot camp September 15, 1980. I figured I'd take the summer off and then get down to business. But it didn't work out that way. I broke my arm in two places that summer wresting on my grandmother's farm in Alabama. So I got discharged and had to enlist all over again. I ended up reporting to boot camp February 10, 1981 - just about three weeks after President Reagan assumed office.