Okay, so I'm NOT a Gold Member (but my Winky does glow from my time as a nuke!) and I'm not currently in the nuclear industry (chemical manufacturing...bad enough), but I think I qualify to toss in my $0.02 since I have done my boomer patrols and 120-hour weeks (at least as commissioning approached) in the shipyard AND I have a son currently deployed as a SAW gunner (he's the kid in the turret of the Humvee with the B-I-G gun) with a Marine unit in Iraq.
There are a lot of folks out there who could not do what we did (and do for those of you still on active duty) in submersible sewer pipes for 70 seconds---let alone 70 days---at a pop. It also takes a special kind of person to run patrols (mounted OR foot) every night in an area where many of the natives really don't want you in the first place. In my conversations with some of these kids that my son serves with, when they find out that I served on submarines those big, bad sumbitches get these real funny looks on their faces and, in all seriousness, say to me, "No f&#*in' way I would ever do that!"
It's all perspective, people and the last time I looked we were all supposed to be on the same side. Hell, I never even wanted to hop and pop on a fast boat while I was in because I thought that would be like going from the frying pan into the fire.
Yeah, I remember when I got to my first boat we had one nuke IC1 left (Pete Ford...hope you're doing alright if you're out there, brother) who strongly resisted being "assimilated" into the EM rate, but the Nav won and he became an EM. I think the first VCR we had in the crew lounge was a Beta and, yes, we had ye olde projector for burning flicks on the mess decks. Anyone fondly remember the Sunstrand system (for your repeated listening pleasure)? I still have my Walkman out in the garage!
Sorry for the impromptu walk down memory lane. "You got your manhood back, Coach Kline!! You got your manhood!!"