The post "As a legally retarded person, I was able to finish college thanks to the military" prompted me to write down what happened to me.

I was a C,D, and F high school student, 3rd chair trumpet, no sports. No surprise there to me since I became aware of my lack of intelligence in the 3rd grade. However I wanted to serve on a submarine so I enlisted in the Navy right after high school, this was 1973. Fortunately for me, the academic standards were lowered at that time due to Vietnam, and an unwillingness for young people to serve. I've since verified that the standards were raised again in the 80's. Anyway, I made the cut for the Navy Nuclear Power Program and was placed in the slowest academic section for electricians. Fast forward to August of 1975 and I reported to a fast attack out of Pearl.

A second class on the boat taught me isolation troubleshooting and that was my first awareness that there were methods to apply to the challenges of life. I got out after my 6 years were up and started engineering college. It was a miserable failure, way above my intellect. So I stepped down to a Bachelors in Business where I learned and applied methods to pass my classes and keep my grades up above a 3.5. My GPA qualified me for an IT internship that grew into a 30 year career. I'm now retired with dignity.

However, it has always been a struggle with my low IQ. Once I learn the methods for an operation I can actually improve the operation. But I can't tell you what a solution should be for a particular problem. I'm thankful that there is a high number of computer operations out there that need "specialists" to keep them going.

Sadly my sons, ages 30 and 28, inherited my low IQ, not uncommon, and they are poster boys for the Dunning–Kruger effect. It is painful to watch them think that playing computer games for 40 hours a week is a good idea. Looking back on it I should not have had children.

But all that being said, thank you U.S. Navy for giving me a chance, and the G.I. bill, and most importantly putting that second class in my life to open my mind to the awareness of methods for overcoming life's challenges.