Yeah, there are all kinds in the service but I wouldn't trade my experience (DDG-52 baby!) for anything. Me and my roomates all had high security clearances and I must admit we (YN, couple of ET's, a CT, and couple of RM's) did a lot of crazy shit back then but when we were on duty or at sea it was all business.

I used to charge guys $500.00 (as long as it was somewhat on the way) to drop them off on my way to Texas so I can believe someone would steal a car to get home.

Just like you said people wearing the uniform come from all walks of life and some just don't take the opportunity and start fresh! A guy I worked with when I first joined turned out to have been molesting his nephew (he had a high clearance)...rumor had it that he was using cocaine while he was in. I heard about an 0-5 busted at Pentagon City Mall in Arlington, VA for trying to pick up a minor a few years ago. I've seen people kicked out for drug use...mostly younger guys/girls getting in with the wrong bunch and smoking marijuana. Then you can add one of the newest things...gang members in the military! There are people from these same type of environments who do well too so this is not to say that there are no shining stars that came from less than ideal situations!

Also, like you I would never give this experience up...eventually I will leave the stresses behind but I would not have went a different direction if given the choice! I've met some of the greatest people in my time in...I've made more than friends in some cases...some have honestly become like family...brothers from another mother! The first person I met from tech school almost 13 years ago is one of them...I'm not assigned the same place as him anymore but I keep in touch with him and a few others probably as much as my own flesh and blood!

I have been out since 96' and I still talk to my Aroc from bootcamp/ A school even though we were never stationed in the same place after that. Crazy how tight knit you can become in a relatively short time period.

Who knows where I would be if I had stayed running the street in my home town. It's a what you make of it. Easy to make the wrong choices and hard to make the good ones.

Amen! That's cause divers and other members of elite units have better things to do. What it is, is that the fu@ks who do this kind of thing have too much time on their hands. I, honestly, wouldn't be surprised if it was a bunch of dependent children (teenage) who did that! One time, a few years back, one of my buddies got a call, his 16 y/o son got caught with other dependent children shoplifting CDs from the Exchange. It was not only embarrassing for the father (my friend) but also to the Unit and Navy, as a whole. Another guy I know's daughter go arrested by Base Cops for selling weed...