You're listening to Rough Translation from NPR.

John Wong was a college student at UC San Diego when he enlisted in the Marine Reserves, the

summer of 2001.

He graduated bootcamp the week of 9-11.

That was a bit of a shocker.

Like, plain stop lying.

The people that were supposed to come for the graduation couldn't come.

His parents lived close by, so days later they were able to take him out to celebrate.

I'm not exactly sure why they chose Applebee's.

I think it had just opened up and it was just kind of like, oh, let's try something new.

So there he is in his new uniform, khaki shirt, olive green pants, and he's flipping through

that huge menu they have when another diner got up from his table.

And just said, you know, I don't want to interrupt your dinner, but I just want to say thank

you for your service.

I kind of stammered out like, you're welcome or something like that.

I felt like an imposter, like I'm just wearing this costume.

And it wasn't until the second person really struck on my mind because it happened not

too long after that first person.

I think we were still, I still had a menu in my hands.

I remember he wore a polo shirt tucked into his jeans for some reason.

And this person actually put their shoulder as an older man.

He put his hand on my shoulder as he was kind of leaning in to say thank you.

...