Had an interesting encounter the other day at work – had an HVAC guy in doing some PMs on the building boiler and server room A/C, and as I walked up to introduce myself and to get him into the various areas, he asked “what branch?”
Just, out of the blue he assumed I was former military.
“Navy” I said. “Submarines – how did you know?”
He mentioned it’s the walk. Apparently military folks have a certain stride that sets them apart… And that got me thinking about all of the other goofy military things I still do even though I got out in ’90.
The big one for me is “time”: I still use a 24 hour clock and I’m more worried about being late than being shot at; five minutes early is ten minutes late… So I’m perpetually ‘hurry up and wait’ – even 35 years post-service.
In that regard, getting up at 5am is genetic at this point so I’ve not owned an alarm clock since before the turn of the century – and while I’m slowing down here north of 50, I can still do literally anything within about 30 seconds of waking up. Along that line is my ability to sleep, right now, anywhere, despite however loud it is – but if it suddenly gets quiet I’m instantly awake and at 110%…
I still say “say again” when I didn’t hear something clearly, which confuses people. And I still do the hat thing – on when I’m outside, off when I’m inside.
There’s a bunch more, mostly Navy slang related… Like the company-wide email at work is “1MC@company.com” and my perpetual use of “the head” for the restroom…
It’s kind of amazing how much of that stuff sticks with you – forever apparently. 🙂
Leave a Reply