After some experience as a cadet, Andrew succeeds in becoming a Marine officer and is selected for training as a Naval Aviator. He continues with mixed feelings, but gets his Navy Wings of Gold and joins a Marine squadron in South Carolina to get combat-ready for the Viet Nam war. He has a good deployment in Viet Nam and participates in many combat missions and also serves some time in a Marine infantry battalion. He returns home as a minor hero and soon discovers that due to Defense politics and budget cutbacks his career as a Marine officer will be too brief.
