October 2, 2001
Back in college I was in Naval ROTC for a couple years. Each semester all of us midshipmen had to take a "Naval Education" course: Stuff like naval history, navigation, anything else that was sufficiently boring. My sophomore year, I took Naval History.
Even though it was for the NROTC kids, the classes were technically open to everyone, and a senior looking for some easy credits was taking the class. We were discussing the Marines taking Tripoli, in which a handful of Marines overpowered the entire town.
The jarhead wannabes were sufficiently impressed, but I personally thought that it was a bit far-fetched. The non-ROTC senior raised his hand; I assumed he was going to ask the same question I had in mind. Not quite: "Uh, Lieutenant, do we have any information on the sobriety of those Marines?"
The jarheads glared at him, the rest of the middies snickered, and the submariner lieutenant teaching the class almost had to call off the day's lesson early. I'd like to think the guy got an A.
