Between poor grades from goofing off in high school and not knowing what I wanted to study, I decided there wasn't much point in going to college. Instead I decided I would join the military, so I talked to both Navy and Army recruiters.

I knew some fellows from my Explorer Post had become Navy nukes, which sounded good to me, and testing showed I qualified. Problem was, from talking to the aforementioned fellows, I knew it was a six-year commitment. However, the recruiter kept insisting I had to sign up for only four years. Technically, he was correct, but I don't know if he was aware of the requirement to extend for two more years before I could get the school and didn't want to admit it to me, or if he didn't know about it. I didn't know about extending; all I knew was that I would have to do six years and he wouldn't admit it. So I ended up enlisting in the Army Security Agency for four years on April 23, 1965.

About a year and a half later, I was in Turkey, coming in on second shift through some crummy weather, and I made a comment to the station chief about how I should have joined the Navy. He asked why, I told him my enlistment story, pointing out that if I had gone Navy I would still be in school. Turned out he was aware that the Army had a nuclear power program at that time, and started me looking into it. Eventually, after returning to CONUS, I submitted an application and was accepted into the Army Nuclear Power Program in 1968. I stayed with the program until it was eliminated in 1977, then got out and worked in the civilian nuclear industry for nearly 40 years.

Thomas Steinhart, American Legion Post 53, DuPont, Wash.