All right. Grab a cold one and let me tell you a story-

I was a just turned 21 yr old sailor. My partner in crime was also a sailor. I worked in the ATC tower at NAS Penscola. I can tell you that beer goggles go far beyond just improving the looks of a woman at 2330. It can make the stupidest ideas sound absolutely brilliant.

After 3 hours of drinking draft beer at a nickle a glass at The Barrels we decided to go back on base and catch a turkey at the Land Sea Survival school. Thanksgiving was just a few weeks away and this sounded entirely reasonable. When we got there the turkeys were roosting under a vapor light so my partner says "Lets kill a deer." With that we ran one down and stabbed it to death. Very similar to a bow kill but like our cave man ancestors, there was a lot more running involved.

The 10' chain link fence proved to be too much of a challenge or we might have got away with it. (As long as no one was counting the deer herd.) So we hung the deer on the fence and butchered it. Pulled hams, shoulders, backstraps and tender loins. Tossed them over the fence, loaded it all into the coolers in my truck and headed off base to my sisters house. We cut and wrapped meat all night then went back to the barracks.

I had a middle of the day shift the following day. Went I got off work that evening NCIS was in the tower parking lot taking blood samples off my tailgate.

You would think the story would be the end of it. Au contraire. That story followed me for the rest of my federal career. For 30 plus years I ran into people who would meet me and say "Hey, aren't you the guy who killed the deer?"

Like I said earlier, I was never proud of it but I never tried to hide from it. And it makes for an interesting story at deer camp. Unless of course, you're easily offended like Poor Ol Ray.