Well said, Riverkilt! By the grace of God, I served during peacetime, and fall into the "never went anywhere, never did anything" category.

When the time came to dip a toe into the kilted waters, I pondered long and hard on how best to start. I wasn't sure of a tartan (at that point, I hadn't even seen, I don't think, the Marine Corps tartan), so I fell back on a Utilikilt original in olive drab. Hey, those ARE my clan colors!

I'm not too surprised to see what seems to be a disproportionate representation of former Marines here. The combination of pride, history, tradition and not giving a rat's patootie what the rest of the world thinks is a heady one.

(With that said, I hasten to point out that the Army, Navy and Air Force have some pretty good units too, and that we're all on the same side, so my enthusiasm for the Marine is not a denigration of the soldier, sailor or chairman.)

Did I really say chairman?