Imagine having this conversation with your nephew who had never been around the Navy.

He saw your uniform with the dolphins and heard you saying something about winning the Cold War.

This is how the conversation went:

“So you were on submarines. What did you do in the war Uncle Bob?”

“I kept the air clean.”

“You mean you were on nuclear submarines that had all kinds of electronic stuff and exotic weapons and systems and your main job was keeping the air clean?”

“Well, that and some other stuff. But mainly I was an Air Regen Ranger. Some called us Auxiliarymen, some called us A-Gangers, and anything that wasn’t radioactive or filled with electrons probably fell under our watch. “

“Sounds kind of boring Uncle B.”

“Yep. But so is dying. If you want to live under the water in a steel tube that’s closed on both ends for…