I was raised in South Georgia on a farm with a loving family and a HERO as an older brother. My brother spent 18 months in the Marines (1968-69). He too is a UGA graduate (1966). He spent time in Quang Tri, Viet Nam and made it home safely, thank the Lord. I remember him visiting me in Athens when he returned and how he was so jumpy as he slept on the couch. He passed away suddenly at age 39 and of course it broke my heart. I always felt that his military time was related to his early death and later it was determined that it was.
I had a lottery number of 25 and would have gotten drafted after graduation in 1970. I enlisted in the Navy in July 1970. My degree at UGA was Animal Science; however, I chose the Navy Nuclear Program and spent two years in training, two years on the USS Long Beach CGN-9 and four years as an instructor at the Nuclear Power Training Unit outside of Saratoga Springs, NY. The Long Beach duty was in the Gulf of Tonkin serving as Search and Rescue. From a South Ga farm boy to nuclear qualification is quite a change.
If I had not been impacted by the Viet Nam War, I would probably be in South Georgia today, but instead I have been with Duke Energy nuclear program for 35 years now. My two boys, their spouses and three children live in Raleigh. My youngest son is a graduate of UNC-CH and is married to a nurse who spent time in Afghanistan at Bagram Air Field.