After my tenure as national president of the Navy League and after I think, perhaps, I have nothing to prove, I was wrong. I am asked to speak at the annual Thursday night dinner of the Submarine Veterans of WWII in November 2008. I came in at the last minute and sat down at the designated table full of submarine veterans and their wives. I was the last one to sit down. The submarine veteran next to me listens while we visit at the table for a few minutes and then turns to me and says, "What are you doing here? You don't know anything about us. You aren't a submariner. Why should you be speaking to us?"

And I thought, Here we go again.