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When I was in the military it was very common for people who had been AWOL for decades to come back in. They just walked away from the military and lived as a civilian, and went about their life. They get pulled over for some routine traffic violation and get arrested and sent back. Suddenly you have a forty-five year old private who has a house, wife and kids, and a job and is suddenly a private in uniform for a few weeks while the paperwork goes through.
I remember one of them clearly... A man named Topin. He was older, fifty-five or so, tall skinny black guy, walked with a cane. A lcpl decided to mess with him, short little tough Italian kid from Brooklyn. Topin warned him to knock it off and that he would "kick his ass" and we all laughed. Much to our surprise... He put his cane up against one of the racks (we called our beds "racks"), squared off with this Marine half his age... Jumped up, touched the ceiling, spun around, kicked him in the jaw and laid him out cold. Broke his jaw and all. You never know who you are messing with.
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