I found a neat (but catty) article on the Chicago Tribune site here.
It talks about a local kid who joined the Navy (as a medical corpsman) worked at the White House in that capacity, got some nice letters in his personnel file.
Can you guess who it was? It made me laugh out loud.
Sweeeeeeet. 
I would not have guessed, that’s for sure. That makes his statements that much more interesting.
Well it does sort of lower the bar. We have to admit that a guy can do a lot of neat stuff as a kid and still be (almost anything) as an elderly man.
Also, I am once again struck by how small the world is. Six Degrees of LBJ anyone?
He volunteered. He served. In my mind it gives him a bit more room to talk, which as the article points out possibly some of his critics may not be able to glory in.
Hot shot kid becomes a hot-shot medic, becomes a hot-shot minster. “The Force is strong in this one.”