What are some your more interesting post-military life run-ins with Vets?

Starting it off, I met a fellow Marine at a school field trip that I was chaperoning for my kid. We got to talking because you know you can almost sense another Devil Dog in the area. It's like that Star Wars Force thing.

Anyway, turns out he was a C-130 pilot and used to fly Fat Albert for the Blue Angels at one point. To an Aviation guy such as myself it was fascinating. Getting an unadulterated view of the logistics that goes into supporting the Blue Angels was pretty heady stuff for me. I kind of fan-boyed-out on him a little bit.

At any rate, he gave up flying when he left the Corps and went back to school to get his PHD in some kind of economics. Turns out he started his own hedge fund group and was shall we say, stupid rich. So you know that's cool but that didn't really float my boat. Talking about the JATO demos and the pre-planning for a flight demonstration and the communication during a performance, THAT stuff turned my key.

So about a month or so later we get an invitation from him and his wife for their Christmas party. My wife and I are pretty outgoing folks and we knew them both from other school functions so we said sure, let's go.

Well we pull up to this house here in Suburban Atlanta and its nice but it isn't a mansion or anything, so I'm like "Ok, at least this guy seems grounded."

We walk in and he is about falling over himself welcoming me and the wife. I had noticed that my 14 year old car looked a little out of place amongst all the new Lexus', BMW, Infiniti's, a Maserati, and few Porsche's. So now my spider senses are tingling. I'm thinking of that movie "Dinner for Schmucks."

I am looking around at all these folks that looked like they just stepped out of the Holiday Ralph Lauren catalog in their sweaters and crap and I have a short sleeved button down shirt on because I know how hot people's houses get when you cram them full of people. I hand this guy a six pack of beer from this great local brewery I had just found and he looked at me with this look of joyous disbelief and said "No WAY! You drink this stuff too?"

So we do the mingle thing and I am bored very quickly because these people that are all here are finance guys who are talking in the clouds. They aren't even discussing the geo-political effects on the market. My college economics course work got me far enough along that I knew what one guy was talking about when he asked me if I a believer in the "Austrian House" of economics.

So as a rule, when I don't have much in common with the guests at a party I try to see what the kids are doing or help out in the kitchen. The kids were all watching some movie so I went to the kitchen. I was chatting with this guy's wife, my wife and another lady who owned a catering company. FOOD.

I can talk about food all day long. It is a hobby of mine, cooking great meals and having great conversation goes hand in hand. Well after about 10 minutes this guy comes into the kitchen and we start back talking old sea stories and such. Come to find out we know a couple of different folks from different deployments and such.

This guys and I spend the rest of the night avoiding the other folks and their fancy wine while we throw back the six pack I brought plus some Yuenglings to boot. I made a comment about my carpentry hobby and he says he's gotta show me something and I need to follow him.

He takes me to his home office and shows me this built in desk area that is a feat of modern engineering but it is all wood work. He wasn't trying to impress me with how much he spent on a carpenter to do it, he was sharing his appreciation for outstanding craftsmanship with another guy who would understand. That is when it all fell into place.

The beer we both like was a really well crafted beer.

The cars we both drove (different makes) were older but really well crafted

We both took pride in the stuff we did ourselves, etc.

He was bored and couldn't stand "his" people because they were all about the money and trying to appear a certain way. He was proud of the business he built and wanted to share his experiences with people but nobody in his "circle" got it.

It just goes to show that even if you make it big, you still crave that genuine interest in those things that matter most to you.

I was at the VA pharmacy yesterday and this Normandy vet sat down. I find every vet to be their own book, so I struck a conversation with me. He said he was in supply and he did not participate in the amphibious landing in an apologetic manner. I told him there is no shame in his game. I told him I bet it was a logistical nightmare as supplies, equipment, weapons piled up on the beach and how difficult it must have been to push the supplies forward. He chuckled and laughed and said it was a mountain of supplies. This is nothing monumental, but I did enjoy talking to this WWII veteran.