"In the government, we call them missions; they only last up to a week but usually just a twenty-four hour period," he remarked. When he was actually serving as a Corporal, he had of course been deployed with the rest of his unit, not that he was allowed to talk much about the details of that.

"I assume you saw combat," he said airily. "Probably tied to a platoon of jar-heads. Where you're from, do they arm their medics? I heard some worlds didn't to prove they were only on the field to assist dying military personnel."

Seattle, huh? He nodded his head in appreciation. "From medic to actual doctor, huh?"