I would very much like to have gone to DLI. When I graduated from Oxford, I could read an 8th century manuscript with some facility but couldn't read a newspaper! We were taught to be scholars. I also felt like the Oriental Institute in the 70s was still turning out people to go into the Indian Civil Service but no one had bothered to inform the Dons that the British no longer ruled India.

The interview that we had with the Navy was at the US Embassy in London. The Lieutenant Commander or whatever he was, was an unpleasant man and put us off. The Chief that he had with him was a moron. At least they were honest and didn't promise us DLI which probably would have got me to sign up. Then no doubt I would have run into you in Iceland! LOL

As to the Matine Corp. The Colonel was clearly some sort of lunatic. I have come to the conclusion that the Corp operates more along the lines of a religious cult with weapons than as a strictly military formation. He promised us a stint in Okinawa as part of our career path.

I'm sure that the guys that did Force Recon were full of derring-do but I wanted to be more of an analyst.

After I came back to the US in '79 Charles Issawi at Princeton tried to get me to come there to do a doctorate. The only way I could have financed that would have been through Army ROTC. So, maybe I could have ended up at CentCom in 1990. Instead I got ensorcelled by a young woman's nether parts and ran off to Boulder and Berkeley to try to slake that thirst. It didn't work but I did get to the Middle East in the end and was there for 27 years until it all fell apart.

My son did four years in the Navy so I got to have my vicarious experience of the service that way.

If I had managed to get into the CIA and believe me they could have used my expertise in Islamic matters I probably would have gotten blown up in Beirut along with a number of them in 1983, so at least there's that.

Thanks for your comments. I appreciate them.