Liverpool, England (Everton fan) to work as a merchant marine, and ended up in Chicago at age 14, then later with his aunt in Alexandria, Va at age 16. He goes to boot camp in Bainbridge, MD. After so many weeks he is allowed his first Liberty Pass and he and another Boot are going into DC for the weekend. As they are heading to the bus, my dad notices the other Boot has a chest full ribbons, three rows, in fact. My dad calls this kid out and tells him that they haven’t even earned any ribbons yet and asked how he got them. The kid said they have all kids of ribbons and medals at the Navy Exhange. 😏
Point is, you can get all that stuff at the uniform shop, Navy Exhange, (and now the internet) etc.. it doesn’t give authorization to wear them. I had lots of sets of Navy Wings, in fact, the original Wings presented to me at my winging ended up unusable. One of the “traditions” was for your already winged buds to punch you in the chest, or more accurately, punch your wings into your chest. My original wings were bent beyond repair. My choker whites had to be replaced too because I couldn’t get the blood stains out. 😂




[Post edited by B777Fr8Dog at 02/20/2019 12:12PM]