Ron,
It takes a lot of courage to live a long life.
Since you've got a leg up on me in that respect I Salute you! I was very fortunate that during my military career I mostly worked at least one position above my pay grade. I was a Buck Sergent tank commander, a SSG PSG and quite often either a SSG or PSG Platoon Leader and later a PSG ISG. One thing that I had to learn early on in my career was to tell NCOs and sometimes officers "Don't let your rank get in the way of my position."
Most of them figured it out and for those that didn't it mostly turned out badly for them. I turned down both OCS and West Point because at the time I didn't plan on making a career out of it. I guess the only reason that I did was because I couldn't make up my mind what I wanted to do when I grew up so I just stayed on enjoying what I was doing.
I hope that your time in the military was as satisfying to you as mine was to me.
Take care,
George
