Are you sure about that 'Officer' thing? With his background, I would expect him to have become an NCO in his later reserve time, since with only two years on active duty in the late sixties he likely did not make it to NCO ranks during his active hitch. I have been an 'Other ranks,' an NCO, and officer, and with no disrespect to any group, there is a WORLD of difference between noncommissioned officer and commissioned officer. The word 'Officer' by itself is NEVER used to describe an NCO, only as a shorthand term for commissioned and warrant officers.
I dunno where I ever put it, as it's been a long time ago, but if I recall correctly, his resume of his professional qualifications (in the food service industry)--which by the way actually are far from unimpressive, but those accomplishments might have been things he did before he became a primitive--showed two years of active duty in the U.S. Navy 1965-1967, and he's mentioned that other times, other places.
But then six years 1967-1973 as an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserves; he was in college at the time, perhaps financed by whatever the GI educational benefits were then (he attended an ultra-high-class small college in southeastern Pennsylvania), but the memory neglected to remember his rank.
As a professional civilian, really, an officer is an officer is an officer--whether a major or a corporal or a sergeant or an admiral, they're officers, and I respect them equally. A lieutenant's likely to get as much admiration and respect from me as a general is.
It's probable the sparkling old dude never went bad until into middle age, when he dumped his first wife, who'd been with him all through the trials and travails of the early years, and who was getting kind of stout and grey and drab, for his much-younger second wife.
