As a midshipman at USNA, among other things, we spent a week learning about the Marines at Quantico, our third summer. Oliver North was there, just back from Viet Nam. I happened to be, randomly, in his "platoon", and I also happened to be, in alphabetical order, the first name. Due to that, I "got" to carry his radio for a week of maneuvers. Back in the day, radios were big and heavy. He told me "I want you two steps behind me, one step to my right, when I turn to you, I want that handset in my hand." Ollie at that time, was a Capt and for most of the week, when he referred to me, he simply called my "Lieutenant." That part was cool.
It was a pretty epic week, and Ollie was a true combat hero (not so much a Washington guy, but this was year's before all that.)
During our week a hurricane came up the Chesapeake Bay. Needless to say, Quantico took a huge amount of rain. We were "camping" out, during the hurricane, in kind of a meadow. It started filling with water. Fast. Ollie, using my radio, called in helos, in the approaching hurricane, to lift us out.
By now the water was calf high in the meadow, As the helos came in, Ollie turned to me and said, "Don't worry, these guys fly the president." I was the next to last guy out. Ollie was the last. The water was approaching waist high at this point, but the open meadow was the only place the helos could hover.
At service selection, I did not choose Marine Corps, I went surface navy!
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