Coleman Ruiz

There's actually a crazy story behind this, which maybe we'll circle back to, but the summer of,

Gosh, I had forgotten that this started in seventh grade too.

The summer between my seventh and eighth grade year, my grandfather was too young to join the Navy.

And he wanted to go to the Naval Academy during World War II.

And he lied to the recruiter and he got into the Merchant Marines.

His, I'm pretty sure, first cousin.

My uncle and my cousins are like first cousins once removed.

My uncle Jim Therrell was at a family reunion in Mississippi.

which we were at, and he didn't mention the Naval Academy.

Family reunion ends, they all go home.

And he starts sending me Naval Academy paraphernalia.

I knew nothing about the military.

And I just thought about it, you know, and he would send me stuff, you know, you didn't, we didn't have the internet, right?

Yeah, that's true.

The truth, Andrew, is like it just seemed exciting.

I wasn't really thinking about the implications as 18-year-olds, you know?

It looked very exciting to me.

And having gotten some professional help in the intervening years, what I really think was a big part of it was my parents got divorced my senior year in high school.

And the family unit just blew up, right?

And so...