Figures...the last, the forgotten, one of these services is not like the other ones, Department of Transportation at the time, "Bus Drivers", "Safety Orange" - really(?), there's a white and blue diagonal stripe somewhere, is The Guard. When the work was hard; supervised by RIP, "Lifer", brain dead personnel, with coffee cup on curled finger in one hand, who long ago gave up all hope; or by an "Officer" who didn't want to be there, who gave BAD orders, as you, in reasonable charge, did your level best to alert everyone, in advance, to the OBVIOUS to the most casual observer - error, to a deaf (and dumb) ear, to an undeserved "DO IT AS I ORDERED YOU TO!", and you and your shipmates had to do the HARD work THREE TIMES in total because of the arrogance of "Rank"; when THAT SAME "Officer" later BROKE THE BOAT through his order to turn the ship into bad weather while increasing speed, putting the entire Ship and Crew in peril (something only the Captain is allowed to do - subsequently, that "Officer" was SENT STATESIDE on the first available flight - his career was OVER); when the brain numbing first in line (3 times) after the Service-Wide exam and "time in grade" restrictions to advancement threw "huge logs in front of the bus" of personal motivation; when doing the additional work of multiple unfilled billets while banging one's head against the "glass ceiling" of time in grade dawned as "moth to a flame"; when you are thousands of miles from familiar shores in sub-zero Antarctic (yeah - South Pole) weather suspended for an hour over the side of the still moving - still crunching Ice Breaker on a Bosin's Chair with bare hands and a bucket of glycol-laced cold water (to keep IT from freezing) scrubbing "stack soot" off so that the Old Man could "look good" against a sister ship when arriving at McMurdo Station, Antarctica; you knew you were in "The Guard". The extravagance of those "in charge" and dealing with the fruits of their egos was a deeply meaningful and awesome responsibility - NOT!