Do or do not do. There is no try.

Before I begin this, let me make something clear. Please understand that I’m too old to bother with “he/she.” Anytime I say “he” I’m including the ladies unless the context is obvious.

A comment in a post responding to a news story the other day annoyed me. “The working man who will spit in your eye in Philly or Chicago lowers his head and slips off to his T.V. and couch here in (Jacksonville). (He) would like to be someone but can't.”

I definitely don’t agree with the comment. No “working man” has to “lower his head and slip off to his TV and couch” here in Jacksonville or anywhere else unless he chooses to do so. There are too many opportunities available to become a professional and get into a better situation.

Unless there are extraordinary reasons why he can’t, there are no excuses. I now believe in what I call the “Yoda axiom:” “Do or do not do, there is no try.”

I’m a “working man” and have been for nearly 50 years since I left home in Pennsylvania. I often “lowered my head,” etc., but it was because I chose to; wasn’t brave enough to try to do something to improve my situation.

I served 23 years in the USAF from 1960 to 1984 and retired as a senior master sergeant (an E-8). That’s something achieved by only two percent of all enlisted personnel in the Air Force. (The statistics are generally the same in the other services.)

Did I get a college education? No. Did I get a commission? No. Could I have?

Definitely yes on the college, both during my service and during the 10 years my GI bill was still in effect after I retired.

My education would have been either free or almost free while I was in the military and while my GI Bill was in effect. I could have gone to any state college or university in my home state of Pennsylvania for free. I did get my Vietnam Bonus from there.

I could even have become a civilian pilot. I couldn’t in the military because of a rule which said no one could become a pilot who wore glasses. You generally could remain a pilot, however, if you had to get glasses after you got your wings.

A commission? Perhaps – I didn’t even try. I had several opportunities but I was too afraid of failure and had “too many other responsibilities.”

I’m more than 60 years old now and it’s about time I tried getting a better situation for my wife of 40+ years and I, don’t you think? Hindsight is always more accurate than foresight.

I’ll tell you one thing: Gold or silver on my collar/shoulder would have been worth much more in retirement money than those eight chevrons on my arm.

That “working man” could, if he wished and didn’t have extraordinary reasons not to, get a better education, find part time work, work from home – a lot of things and still keep his current employment. If she chose, so could his spouse. I’ll be writing another article about that.

Let’s look at some possibilities. You want an education? Here are some ways to get it:

Ideally, you start getting ready in high school or before. You train yourself to study, to participate in class, to get involved. You get good grades and you qualify for Bright Futures (a Florida advantage which might pay a major portion of your college expenses). Your state probably offers something similar.

You get into the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps program in your high school and you try for and get a full ROTC scholarship, often to the college or university of your choice – you’re not limited to your home state.

If you qualify, you might not only get your tuition, room and board paid – the military might even pay YOU.

There are generally two types of ROTC scholarships, the one you come in on or the one which you acquire by getting into the ROTC program when you go to college but not on a scholarship. You change it to the ROTC scholarship by participation and qualification. The second is usually for the final two years of your college but carries the same “perks” as the first.

In either case, you get a Bachelor’s degree and a commission in whatever military service you choose. You’re not limited to the service of the ROTC program in which you participate.

You will probably be “in” the military during your summer vacations. Navy ROTC cadets, for example, often actually go on cruises while Army, Marine and USAF cadets may go to bases anywhere in the world. There they may do work similar to what they’ll do when on active duty.

You might even secure an appointment to one of the military academies. That’s far more difficult, though.

One of my colonels, a man who became the commander of the 432d Tactical Reconnaissance Wing at Zweibrucken AB, Germany, the home of the side looking airborn radar (SLAR) equipped RF-4C Phantoms, told me how he got his appointment to West Point.

He was too short – according to some standard – to go to West Point. He told me that he was “talking” with his congressman and picked the man up by his shirt and asked him: “I really don’t qualify?”

Colonel “X” got his appointment to the Military Academy. He later taught wrestling at the Air Force Academy. He retired either as a brigadier or major general.

Age is not a factor. I’ve read of people who began school and got degrees when they were older than I am now. I could – but I probably won’t. I have too many other irons in the fire and I’ll be writing articles about them later.

Something important: Prejudice has no place in military service. That’s something which may be hard for some to understand. As many found out in combat, you have to rely on the man (or woman, nowadays) next to you to protect your back – and they you.

Color, race or religion makes little difference when bullets are flying or you might run into an “improvised explosive device (roadside bomb).”

I grew up in the northern states and had only seen African-Americans on TV or in newspaper or magazine pictures – there were none where I lived. No African-Americans (or Japanese or Chinese, for that matter) went to the schools which I attended – they simply didn’t live around there.

Military service doesn’t always mean “going in harm’s way.”

My brother, who retired as a Navy senior chief petty officer, had himself reassigned from Subic Bay, Republic of the Philippines, to Vietnam with duty as a medic with the Fleet Marine Force because it was safer.

He had annoyed some people in Manila and they put a contract out on him. Though he lived aboard ship, the Navy agreed with him that he would be in less danger in Vietnam.

Although I was aware there were African-Americans, the same as I was aware there were Chinese, Japanese or American Indians, I had never encountered one. I met my first African-American in basic training. Luckily, I had no problems.

They just happened to have skin which was a different color and their hair was generally more “kinky” than mine. They could also get away with wearing colors I would never dare to wear. They looked good in those colors, too.

When I went to my first assignment – Ellsworth AFB, SD – the first sergeant assigned me to a room and told me I would have a roommate. I was busily unpacking when this very deep voice asked: “What are you doing in MY room?” I turned and saw what looked like a huge black bear. That man was the largest, meanest looking person (White or African-American) I had ever seen.

Though I didn’t, I think, show it, he just about scared the **** out of me.

“I’m your new roommate,” I explained. “The first sergeant told me I would be sharing a room, but didn’t say with whom.”

That was OK. He sounded a lot better when he wasn’t annoyed.

We became friends, thankfully – it’s always harder if you don’t like your roommate.

I can tell you a story about the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and my roommate’s involvement with that excellent organization, but that’s for another time. I guarantee you’ll be laughing by the time you finish it, though.

Another way to get an education which involves the military is to enlist and either go “active duty,” or join the Reserves or the National Guard. The latter two may require going away from home for basic training and possibly technical school. They might involve some time on active duty – you’ll need to check. Generally you’ll spend most of your time as a civilian.

Florida, for example, guarantees anyone who enlists and meets certain qualifications a free education in any state college or university.

I’m not sure if they still do it, but at one time, you could get a “bonus” just for enlisting.

Retirement is also possible but I’m not familiar with those rules.

My family and I were assigned to Guam. A friend of ours, the Base Newspaper photographer, also an enlisted man, routinely went to Hong Kong every other week. He bought camera equipment for the “brass,” sometimes officially for the Air Force.

On Guam, the Air Force had a 50-foot fishing boat and the Navy had an Aero Club. The same as Horatio Hornblower, I got seasick on an anchored boat in a harbor when the sea was calm and the wind still.

I could have learned to fly there and often regret I did not. One of our six children was a Guamanian, born at the Agana Naval Station base hospital.

Suffice it to say that some people swear that if a woman were about to have a baby, driving on a “washboard” road was a sure way to make the baby come when you want. That didn’t work for us. We tried and those were some of the worst roads in the world. We drove a “Guam Bomb,” a car in such bad condition we could see the road through the holes in the floor boards.

We often went to Tarague Beach. Here’s what it looks like, now. I found this and several other pertinent shows on YouTube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SU0YbtGIfg)

We once had to hit a palm tree at the bottom of Sanders Slope Road going from the base down to Tarague Beach, Andersen AFB, Guam, because our brakes failed. A coconut actually dented the roof of the car.

If you look at the YouTube mentioned above, the second one shows what going down that road looks like now.

There was a munitions storage area for bombs just down the road from the top. It was used a lot from 1965-1967, when we were there. That was during the Vietnam era, remember.

Once trucks started down that road, they couldn’t stop. If you were trying to come up the road, you had to turn around and wait at the bottom.

That, too, is another story.

I spent 23 years in the USAF, some during the Vietnam era, and the closest I got to “combat” was being assigned to a Royal Thai Air Force Base called Nakhon Phanom (NKP) around 30 miles or so from the Laotian border. I was once told that if I were assigned to Berlin, I would be in more danger from the Baader-Meinhof Group or Gang than I ever was in Thailand. .

This didn’t happen while I was there, but the base was so close to the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos that, when the B-52 Stratofortresses bombed the northern portion of the Trail, you could see the bombers with binoculars and the ground would shake.

Five hundred or thousand pound bombs make quite a racket and shake things up when they hit the ground. They were bombing further south when I was there.

While other bases in Vietnam and Thailand (even Utapao on the southern end of Thailand) were routinely attacked by the “bad guys,” NKP was not. We had several advantages not enjoyed by the other bases but I won’t go into them here. That’s another story.

Here are several YouTube features which show B-52s on Andersen and Utapao RTAFB, Thailand, and bombing targets in Vietnam. The first is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9H3-KzhMxc&NR=1 . You can find several others with this one. I was stationed, as I said, on Andersen.

I was almost stationed TDY at Utapao but got assigned to a missile base in South Dakota instead of to a bomber base outside of Dallas-Fort Worth, TX.

When I got my initial orders to leave Thailand, I wrote the Historian at Second Air Force, part of the Strategic Air Command, that I had just spent 12 months there and had no desire to be sent right back for another six months temporary duty (TDY) with the bombers.

I went to the 44^th Strategic Missile Wing, Ellsworth AFB, SD, instead. The Historian assured me the 150 Minuteman missiles located at Ellsworth would not be going anywhere, at least not accompanied by any military personnel.

You’ll be eligible for many benefits including medical and dental care for yourself and at least medical care for your family at a much lower expense than the civilian population pays. There’s also quarters allowance or housing (if available) on base, basic rations, and family separation pay (if you meet the qualifications), just to name a few.

Navy personnel may also be eligible for sea duty pay. Commissaries and base exchanges usually have better prices than most stores.

You and your family may even be able to “hop” onboard military or military-contracted aircraft going anywhere in the world – and get to stay at what’s equivalent to excellent “four star” hotels at little or no cost. That’s not to mention you might be assigned somewhere exotic where people pay a fortune to go and rooms there are ridiculous.

You’ll get to do it for free – depending upon your assignment.

My wife and I have been blessed (or cursed, depending upon what was happening at the time) with six children, all single births. We now have 10 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren with another on the way. She’s scheduled to arrive in November.

If you have children, you have an idea how much bearing a child costs, and how much medical expenses for that child are later. You’ll have to check this out, either with a recruiter or, in the case of the National Guard or Reserves, with a unit near you. You might also be able to get information on the Internet.

Other rules have changed since I was on active duty. You might be able to transfer some of your education benefits to your spouse at least; possibly even to your children. I could not but they’ve changed the rules. Check it out. I’ve not kept completely up to date on benefits.

I’ve digressed some but I’ll refer you to another of my HUBs (http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-pay-for-a-college-education) and to articles relating to starting home businesses: (http://www.examiner.com/x-24169-Jacksonville-Startup-Business-Examiner~y2009m9d27-Business-startup-suggestions ) and (http://www.examiner.com/x-24169-Jacksonville-Startup-Business-Examiner~y2009m9d27-Work-at-home-or-get-an-office ).

I just realized I’ve written more than 2500 words – thanks for putting up with me. I hope this helps. It certainly allowed me let off a bit of steam about that ridiculous comment.

May Irish Blessings Be Upon You and Yours. May your enemies be afflicted with itching without the benefit of scratching (my version of an ancient Irish curse. GOOGLE Irish curses, if you’d like to know more.).

Thanks, again.