Me

Last evening my wife and I went to dinner with the Saint Petersburg Chapter of MOAA. We were by far the youngest people present by 10-15 years. At our table was a couple from New Hampshire who live in South Pasadena for 4-5 months per year and a former Army Nurse. The gentleman had served in the Marine Corps in the late 1950s-early 1960s and then went on to a career in computers and telemarketing. The nurse served during the late 1960s never deploying to Viet Nam and ended up living in the Washington, DC area until retirement. During the course of dinner my career came up and I told how I had flown P-3s and then taught Mathematics at the Naval Academy. When I talked about my new career as a consultant I never mentioned my companies name. This intrigue my wife.
She asked me this morning why? My answer really goes back to why I don't bring up the fact I graduated from the Naval Academy, people have preconceived notions about people based upon their past. As a young junior officer I was on a crew with no Naval Academy graduates except me. During my first deployment to Diego Garcia in 1983, my mission commander, LCDR Ed "Pappy" Boyington, mentioned that he was glad we didn't have any of those F-ing Naval Academy graduates on our crew. Being the junior officer I kept my mouth shut as he expressed his opinion on Naval Academy graduates. One of the other officer told him that I was a graduate and he couldn't believe it. When asked I of course confessed that I did graduate from the Boat School. His response was that I sure didn't act like those other A-holes.
I always want to be accepted for who I am, not where I came from or who I know. So I didn't share the company I work for not out of embarrassment but that is not who I am.