An old Sailor and an old Marine were sitting at
the VFW arguing about who'd had the tougher career.
"I did 30 years in the Corps," the Marine declared proudly, "and fought in three
of my country's wars. Fresh out of boot camp I hit the beach at Okinawa, clawed
my way up the blood-soaked sand, and eventually took out an entire enemy machine
gun nest with a single grenade. "As a sergeant, I fought in Korea alongside
General MacArthur. We pushed back the enemy inch by bloody inch all the way
up to the Chinese border, always under a barrage of artillery and small arms
fire. "Finally, as a gunny sergeant, I did three consecutive combat tours in
Vietnam. We humped through the mud and razor grass for 14 hours a day, plagued
by rain and mosquitoes, ducking under sniper fire all day and mortar fire all
night. In a firefight, we'd fire until our arms ached and our guns were empty,
then we'd charge the enemy with bayonets!"
"Ah," said the Sailor with a dismissive wave of his hand, "lucky bastard, all
shore duty, huh?"