He was in between flights at an airport somewhere, late at night, the place was practically deserted. He found a little bar in the terminal and dropped his seabag by the door and headed for the bar. Too late he noticed three soldiers at a rear table, blouses (that's coats to the uninformed) off and obviously had a good head start on getting a beer.
The Chief was a known scrapper, fearless in that regard, but three to one...Army vs Navy...and these were big boys. If he had seen them first he might not have gone into the barroom, but having entered it would have been too obvious a retreat to turn around and leave. So he plopped up on a stool, ordered a beer and studiously ignored the boys at the table.
But boys being boys, they couldn't ignore this less than tall swabbie in his whites any more than they could pass up another beer. So they came over to the bar, surrounding the Chief, and invited him to buy them a beer. The negotiations were just getting under way, more than a little tense for the Chief, when one of the soldiers noticed the hard hat diver badge the Chief had on his uniform. He confirmed that he was indeed a deep sea diver, had hundreds of dives to his credit and had seen some stuff.
The mood in the room immediately took a 180. These soldiers were full of questions about diving and all seemed in awe of the dangers involved. To a man they agreed that it was far too much of a danger for them. The Chief began to spin some deep sea stories and before you know it, they were all great pals...beer drinking pals, the best kind. It got close to time for their flight so they went over to their table to get their jackets and other gear and head for their gate. They wished him well and again marvelled at what he did for his pay. As they donned their blouses (that's still coats), the Chief broke out laughing. All three of them were Airborne Rangers! The stars on their wings and Screaming Eagle (that's 101 Airborne Division) on their right shoulders said these boys not only jumped out of airplanes for a living...they had done it into combat.
The funniest part of the story is the fact that they didn't see the irony of it all. Three paratroopers with wartime jumps marveling at the dangers of deep sea diving. The Chief was never sure if they were truly oblivious or if they were putting him on, but he was sure that one thing he would never do is jump out of a perfectly good airplane...that was too dangerous..