I was wandering by Blackfive’s blog this morning, and ran across an interesting post.

Seems there’s a Hungarian immigrant, one Andras Elder, whose parents escaped to the US with their two kids back in 1980 (you remember – when Hungary was a communist country). Young Andras grew up, went to college, got a double Masters’ degree in Latin & ancient Greek literature, and “carried protest signs denouncing the Operation Desert Shield in 1991.”

Now he’s a Navy Corpsman, and recently received a battlefield promotion to Petty Officer 2nd Class.

It seems that somewhere along the line, he realized that he was a peacenik without really understanding what war was, or what it entailed, and so he needed to experience it. Accordingly, he called a Navy recruiter, who wanted to make him a Supply Officer. He called back and said he’d rather work with the Marines.

“I just thought you have to put your foot where your mouth is,” Eder said. “I had to experience war. Now when we talk about war, we can be more serious. We can now understand what peace is because we understand war.”

Three years later, he’s got two tours in Iraq under his belt.

I love what Eder said about his Marines.

“These guys are just as intelligent and smart as anyone I know,” Eder said. “When I first came to the battalion, I felt like the dumb one. It was a hard thing to convince them they were the smart ones in the fellowship.”

It’s an interesting article, and I agree with Blackfive – this Petty Officer is someone you should know.