Mendelian Genetics is a fascinating field of study. By carefully manipulating breeding patterns, scientists can produce orange roses, grain that is resistant to blight and foul weather, the fastest horses in all of human history, and carp that will eat the weeds out of my farm pond while remaining unable to reproduce.

I grew up at a time when most every male had seen some military service, and I was treated to numerous tales of life in the service of this country in combat and in peacetime. That exposure, and a strong desire to get out of the city and do something that mattered, led me to enlist in the Marine Corps shortly after my 17th birthday.