I left home at age sixteen and moved to Cananda (shhhhh, don't tell anyone!) and a year later I woke up in Massachusetts and found myself to be unemployed, broke, homeless, and a drug user. Even at my lowest point I knew this wasn't the life I wanted to live, and I knew that I needed a shock to the system.
The United States Marine Corps was just the organization to provide that shock. Just like my father before me - and his father before him - I signed my name on the dotted line, and off I went to boot camp at Paris Island for three months of hell.
I made it through boot camp and four years of the Marines and lived to tell about it, and to this day there is no accomplishment I am more proud of.
This is Rochard circa 1988 or so.....
![](http://www.rochardsbunnyranch.com/rock/marine.jpg)