I volunteered for the draft when I was 25 years old. I was the oldest trainee in my battalion. The drill instructor would make me and another older trainee run around the platoon when we were on our daily runs. We were in better shape than most of the 18-year-old trainees. We just laughed and yelled, "More PT, drill sergeant!"

My worst basic training memory was being last to eat because I was a squad leader. The best was always being able to score in the top 10 percent of the weekly PT test and getting a week pass to Nashville.