History
Berntsen grew up in Smithtown, Long Island, a suburb of New York City. When Berntsen was seventeen, he tried to join the United States Army but his parents would not sign the enlistment contract. He waited until his eighteenth birthday when he decided to enlist in the Air Force. Berntsen served for four years as a Crash Firefighter in the Air Force, including tours in Alaska and Korea. During his time in the United States Air Force he became obsessed with educating himself, which he did by reading biographies and enrolling in the Air Force's self-study program, acing several courses. Berntsen also spent much of his time in the gym or skydiving. After Berntsen's time as a firefighter he became a full-time college student where he majored in Political Science and minored in Russian Studies. He attended the U.S. Marine Corps Platoon Leader Class for two summers. However, before he was commissioned in the Marine Corps, he was recruited into the CIA.
Read more about this topic: Gary Berntsen
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“You that would judge me do not judge alone
This book or that, come to this hallowed place
Where my friends’ portraits hang and look thereon;
Ireland’s history in their lineaments trace;
Think where man’s glory most begins and ends
And say my glory was I had such friends.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
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“There is nothing truer than myth: history, in its attempt to “realize” myth, distorts it, stops halfway; when history claims to have “succeeded” this is nothing but humbug and mystification. Everything we dream is “realizable.” Reality does not have to be: it is simply what it is.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)