With a love for the military I was priviledged with 11 years of commissioned service in the Marines, National Guard, and Army Reserves. Eventually the time arrives for physical evaluations; subsequently, doc wrote in big letters "MS" across the medical form. After this goes through command channels everybody knows I have MS. For a while I was not permitted to do anything physical so they gave me a chair to sit on the sidelines as if the military was a sporting event and I was the lone cheer leader.
One Sunday afternoon hobbling down the hall to my car a colonel nabbed me with the stern words "You can't be here anymore" (exact quotation). Those words clawed me deeply drawing the blood of anger and sadness coming face-to-face with MS once again and not my last. I was dismissed, resumed steadfastly to my car that seemed a very long and lonely walk in a dark empty hall echoing every foot step in a slow military cadence. The exit door was opened with reverence, then quietly closed.