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May 2, 2013
10:31:13am
What was your claim to fame in high school?
We moved to Okinawa, Japan (Kadena Air Force Base) the summer of 1981, which was the year I turned 16. I got my driver's license a few weeks before heading over.

One of the first things we did upon arrival was go to the on-base office that managed such affairs, and got our Okinawa driver's license. Technically, you could drive on base if you were 16, but in order to drive off base you were supposed to be 18. If you were under 18, they stamped your license with "on base only" in big red letters. At least they were supposed to. For some reason, they didn't stamp mine. My theory was that since I already had a stateside license, they just generated the island license without really checking my age.

Anyway, since all my friends that had licenses were "on base only", I was known as the guy who could legally drive off base. So, I got to drive everywhere. Plus, I had my own car. My parents each had a car, and we had a 3rd car for us kids to drive. But, both of my older siblings were stateside in college, and my younger brother didn't have his license yet, so practically it was "my" car. Having your own car was a pretty big deal, especially on island. And being able to drive it off base was even more of a status symbol.

In hindsight, the absence of the stamp didn't make it any more legal for me to drive off base - but in our teenage minds, it made all the difference in the world. In any event, I never got caught, so it was never an issue.
StantonMac
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StantonMac
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5/2/13 10:35am
TDH
5/2/13 10:39am
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