Cannoneer:

“Gentlemen of the old, school,” yes.

My grandad was a motorcycle cop and then a detective in the 1930′s, then years after they got rid of him because he opposed the bribe structure, he came back to law enforcement as chief deputy sheriff for the county.

One of my more memorable high school teachers was a naval aviator before WWII. The ship he commanded sailed into Pearl Harbor on 10 Dec 1941, guns manned and ready to fight their way in to the relief of the presumably beseiged garrison.

Another of my high school teachers was a bombadier on a B-25 that launched from the carrier Hornet on 18 April 1942 on a somewhat famous mission.

Today it is hard to believe we had people like that, just “around” as ordinary men. And the ordinary men all worked hard for a living and took care of their families.