From a traveled elementary school education starting in Hawaii, then changing schools every two years, to attending a small liberal arts college, I graduated to a leadership position that turned out to be a 'hanging by the fingernails' survival posting in the Marines Corps, during the Vietnam War in 1968. During that deployment I was seriously wounded, resulting in a long hospitalization. When  finally told that it was likely I would live (though still in a hospital bed), my eyes looked up and asked God for one favor. I asked not to lead a normal, humdrum life. I now believes that God heard my prayer, and pointing one finger down, granted his request.