We talked to a guy last night, in the grocery store, who had served in the Navy, got out and later enlisted in the Air Force, of which he retired from as an E-9. His age, I don't remember, but he did serve in Afghanistan. He is only the second person wife and I have met that had served in two different Services. First one, we met at a hotel in Pigeon Fork, TN. Short hair, so I thought he was either a police officer or fireman, but nope. He had been in either the Army or Marine Corp first, ask for his Honorable Discharge as a Sargent and got it. Started college and got a job. He told me, "it didn't take me very long to see the lack of supervision/discipline in a civilian job, so he quit and enlisted in the other Service. They found out he had some college, he got an officers commission and retired a full-bird Colonel. And, I would tell anyone myself, just how lacking supervision/discipline is in any civilian job, or at least many of them. But, just think, serving in two different military services........wow!
Actually, there would be a lot more who leave one branch and go to another if it wasn’t for the drop in rank by doing so. Even if one ETS’’d and then came back a year later and re-enlisted, they would normally suffer the one rank demotion. Of course, there are a few ways to prevent that from happening such as taking college courses, joining a Reserve or National Guard unit etc My x father-in-law started out in the Army then joined Air National Guard when his enlistment was up and was promoted. He then was called back into active service but with the Air Force and got another promotion. He later went back into inactive service with the National Guard, got a promotion, then was called back active and was promoted again. He retired as a brigadier general.
As for myself, I could have never/ever served in another Service. The Navy was plenty for me. Glad I enlisted and could handle being on the water so much. I remember when I first reported to my first ship in San Diego. I was walking down the pier, Duffel Bag in-hand, looked up and went, "holly cow" at the Tender by the dock and the Destroyers (DDG's) tied up to it. I had to walk thru the Tender and thru two Destroyers to get to my ship. I don't know about today, but wasn't it hard to enlist in the Air Force at one time? That was the second Service the guy in the grocery store went into.
Although it wasn’t mandatory, the Air Force asked that a person have at least one year of college under their belt but it WAS mandatory that a person have a high school diploma with I believe at least a 2.5 gpa and then also score high on the Air Force exam.
My cousin enlisted in the US Army for four years, then enlisted in the Navy where he stayed for twenty years, I think. I believe he joined the Army as an enlisted man but the Navy as an officer, though, because he completed college in the meantime.
Having lived & worked in the DC region most of my life, I've been around a lot of retired military who went on to a second career in government contracting. I don't know that I ever encountered anyone who served in more than one branch.
That's what I was thinking when I looked at the photo. Those men would caption it as "A little choppy."
Wild, but I have seen seas just like that when I was at sea in the Navy. I could step out on the outside deck and the sea level was very close to where I was standing and holding on to something. That was generally during a storm or tropical storm. Almost the entire front end of the ship (bow) would go under the water during a high wave. If a sailor happened to be outside, they had told hold on to something or be swept overboard!
The Filipinos onboard used to be especially vulnerable to seasickness. They would stand on deck and vomit; the sea would then wash over the deck and clear everything away. Not so inside the ship. Every concave space including drinking fountains (scuttlebutts in the Navy), urinals, and sinks would fill with emesis, and we would have to step around and over sailors who had passed out from exhaustion from dry heaves.
I guess I'm lucky, I never had that problem. However, I was standing a watch on the Signal Bridge once and a large wave hit the bow. I didn't duck and got drenched.