CPO Randy

CPO RULES

A Chief Petty Officer shall not drink, BUT
if a Chief Petty Officer should drink,
he shall not get drunk. BUT
If he should get drunk,
he should not stagger. BUT
If he should stagger,
he should not fall down. BUT
If he should fall down,
he should fall on his left side. WHY?
To hide his rating badge so people will think he is an officer.

I got a call from my baby brother Randy yesterday and he gave me the good news that he had made Chief Petty Officer in the US Navy Reserves. This is a big deal in the Navy; When Big Brother Henry made Chief he went through an initiation not unlike rushing a frat, and the pinning ceremony is quite an event.

(Soon to be) Chief Randy served in Iraq most of 2005 as a SeaBee. His son, my nephew served in Iraq this year in the Regular Army until he drove over an IED (Randy tells me that he had an accident and I'm saying an accident is when you hit a car in the Wal-Mart parking lot). The kid is doing fine - got his bell rung pretty badly but will fully recover.

20 years in the Air Force and New Jersey and Florida Air National Guard and all I did was drink beer on three continents.