America 1982-Chapter 240 - 82: The Great Dennis

In Tony’s garage, the hood of the old antique C2 was open. Tony was leaning into it to check on the parts, while Tommy stood by, retrieving different tools from the toolbox and handing them to his brother as requested.

"I don’t see myself as the bookish type, Tommy. I’m probably more like dad; didn’t inherit mom’s brains. When she was alive, she always had ways to deal with the family’s problems. You’re clearly the one in the Hawk family who takes after mom," Tony said as he took the wrench Tommy handed him, unscrewed a bolt, and tossed it aside while taking the chance to look at his brother.

Then he continued to hunch over and get busy, "What I mean is, I’m willing to help you, but I don’t have the brains like you. I didn’t even finish high school. What’s more outrageous is, if you gave me a map of America without the place names, I wouldn’t even know where Maryland is."

Tommy picked up the cracked old bolt and fiddled with it in his hands, "The United States Naval Academy, Air Force Academy, West Point, according to the relevant congressional acts, U.S. senators, representatives, and congressional delegates have two recommendation slots each year for admissions without exams. As long as the nominee is between 18-24 years old, in good health, and a citizen of the United States of America, fitting these criteria, you can take those big shots’ recommendation letters and get in. Pretty magical, right? This is the magical America, fuck the grades, they’re not important."

"Are you talking about going to college or joining the military? It sounds like the recruitment conditions are no different from those of the United States Army," Tony asked with a puzzled look, straightening up after replacing the bolt:

"Could it be a scam? Maybe they’re fooling you into thinking I could take a recommendation letter and go to college, but in reality they’ll just throw me directly into the military, to rot away at some overseas base, since politicians often do deceitful things."

Tommy tossed the bolt toward the trash can in the corner, missed, and hit the can, making a noise.

He twiddled the greasy smudge on his fingers and said to Tony, "Actually, there is a slight difference. Without a congressman’s recommendation letter, the government could trick you into joining the army to rot away, but with it, you can go to the Naval Academy to study. Also, the time you spend studying at the Naval Academy counts towards your service period. The day you enroll, you’re already a naval officer, a cadet officer to be precise. Those contemporaries of yours, rotting away without recommendation letters at various bases, will have to salute you respectfully if they have the chance to meet you, and address you as ’sir.’"

"So with the recommendation letter, even if I’m illiterate, I can still enroll as a college student and become a cadet officer? I wouldn’t be expelled for bad grades?" Tony responded with an incredulous look, as if hearing a fantastic tale, "This is too fucking bizarre. Me? A high school dropout who can’t even spell ’navy,’ being able to attend college and become a naval officer..."

Tommy nodded with a smile, "As long as you don’t commit crimes like rape, drug trafficking, murder, treason, or any other violation of American law during your time at school, you won’t be expelled. You won’t be expelled for poor grades either because your recommendation letter comes with a small stipulation. This separates you from those who got into the Naval Academy through their own efforts. The condition is that upon graduating you must accept a call to serve in the Navy for at least three years. You were recommended because you aspired to serve your country, to protect the great America. So, no matter how poor your grades are, the Navy won’t let you go for nothing; they will find opportunities for you to contribute, even if it’s just fixing cars for the Navy."

"So I’m going to fix cars for the Navy? Doing exactly the same thing after college as if I hadn’t gone? Then what’s the point of wasting four years?" Tony couldn’t help but laugh at Tommy’s words.

"No, I won’t let you fix cars after graduation. Just stay in school for four years, and you’ll get a warrant officer rank. In four years, I’ll arrange a good position for you. I’ll do my best to prepare enough leverage to impress your superiors for every promotion. It’s 1984 now, and in my imagination, you’ll be a captain in ten years, a colonel in twenty years, and if there’s no better development in thirty years, maybe just a sad general. If things go well..." Tommy didn’t continue about thirty years into the future. Instead, he handed Tony a beer and changed the subject:

"Of course, the future is too far away. When you report to college, you need to make the SSD members at that school’s fraternity like you. Think of you as a brother they’re willing to trust and befriend. Don’t worry about spending money to maintain friendships; you’re not short on cash. You can host parties every week, go for drives, lend them money, and they don’t even need to pay you back. Just make sure they always respect you as the most generous and righteous brother, so that one day in the future, they can’t refuse you anything," he explained.

Tony took a swig of the beer, "If SSD was on the streets, it’d be called a gang, but in college, it’s called a fraternity. Is that how I should understand it?" 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"Absolutely. You need to become a core member of the SSD, the college gang. Once I finish researching the information on SSD members at the Naval Academy, I’ll give you a list of key people whose relationships you need to maintain," Tommy said as he popped open a beer for himself and looked at Tony.