Go
Good Evening:
I am not sure how I made it through the Registration process, however, in that either Dragon 13, or my keyboard skills were far to inept as I continued to receive error messages about the verification questions, and although after a while I began to duplicate attempts and low and behold it accepted me.
By means of introduction, I am retired Special Agent with the U.S. Department of the Treasury as well as a retired military officer with forty (40) years of combined active duty and reserve component service, rated in a wide array of military aircraft, fixed and rotary wing, and a veteran of then POTUS Nixon's post-graduation vacation in South East Asia, most of my time having been spent in Vietnam, although I did have the opportunity to tour of countries contiguous thereto. In addition to a firearm (properly registered and declared to the U.S. Customs upon my DEROS) that I was fortunate enough to retrieve from a soldier of the opposing side after I was the winner of that particular engagement. One important lesson learned from that encounter that has stayed with me all of these years is that if I had not started shooting competitively as a Boy Scout during my youth there is a good chance I would not be writing this, as that was the beginning of my acquiring the shooting skills that allowed me to be the winner in that engagement that first week of time "in-country" and my combat tour could have been significantly reduced. My most persistent souvenir is the three (3) ounce piece of Citroen automobile that has been working its way out of my back over the years in small pieces due to my uncharacteristically distracted driving on QL-13 highway (the principle distraction being an unknown individual who was trying in earnest to put a couple of rounds through the window opening in the automobile, apparently hoping to give me one of his bullets as a souvenir as well. In any event, the E&E (escape and evasion) process caused me to veer off of the roadway and onto a old, and fortunately deteriorated French anti-tank mine that function "low order" due to its age, leaving me to survive and fight for the remainder of the year relatively in tact.
Along the way I continued to hunt, and to shoot competitively, and to convey those skills to my children in age appropriate circumstances, so that should they ever be called upon to defend themselves their skills will serve the as mine have done for me when the time came for their use.
I am now winding down a second, or is it third career as a Forensic Scientist, another profession well served by my training and skills relative to firearms, ballistics, shootings along with anatomy, physiology and the investigation into the processes that result in the death or serious injury of others in the course of criminal, or negligent actions of third party. As I approach "Of Counsel" status, I shall continue to enjoy shooting as a sport for a change, and return to reloading and perhaps even returning to competition.
That is it in a nutshell, as they say, but hopefully during the course of discussion and discourse I will continue to learn, and perhaps even contribute something. As for now, I am proud of myself for the persistence and patience (not a commodity found in great quantity in me) in having withstood the frustrations of enrollment into this group. Time for Zeus and Bailey, my two (2) English Mastiffs in training as Service Dogs, to venture out for their exercise so I will simply let my tent go dark.