On Thu, 4 Sep 2014 20:46:49 -0400, Peter Berghold
<xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

>.... you are a retired Marine Colonel.  You own a very large company and
>have thousands of employees.

>I've described the Colonel's office as being spacious but Spartan and very
>simplistically decorated.   Besides a desk, chair and plaque given to him
>by the last battalion he commanded, what sorts of things would you expect
>to see in his office?

Maybe a souvenir or two of specific actions he was in, no explanation
attached to the souvenir, just its presence.  Example:

A scimitar-like sword hanging on the wall. (Explanation: It's not his
Marine cutlass; it's a sword that he took off a pirate in a boarding
action. He immediately used it to separate the pirate's head from his
body, instead of the pirate using it to separate the (then-)Lieutenant's
head from _his_ body.)

A jagged and twisted scrap of metal, embedded in a lucite block, sitting
on a corner of his desk. (Explanation: It's shrapnel from a grenade
during a boots-on-the-ground action. After being hit by it, he was being
evacuated under fire. He nearly took another bullet, which would have
been fatal - but it bounced off the piece of shrapnel, so that it missed
any major organs. When they got him back to the MASH unit, they patched
him up enough to get sent out-of-theater, but the doctors presented him
with the piece of the enemy grenade that saved his life.)

A set of corporal's stripes, bloodstained and singed, framed.
(Explanation: They're not his; they belonged to the guy who went in to
the burning fuel dump and dragged him out, at the cost of his own life.
He personally delivered the "Dear Mr and Mrs Doe" letter, and told them
exactly how their son died. Mr Doe had also been a Marine, and insisted
that the (now-)Colonel keep those stripes.

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