Foxsports.com: Lt. Johnston finally reporting for duty

[TheGoodBits]

Very cool story, wishing this guy the best of luck.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/navy-officer-jonathan-johnston-finally-reporting-for-MLB-duty-012011

Jonathan Johnston turns 27 next month. Ideally, he would be entering his fifth full season of professional baseball. By now, he should have reached Triple A — maybe even the majors. The Oakland A’s might be talking about him as a potential backup catcher for a 2011 team that is expected to be very good.

But here’s the reality: The United States is at war, and the Navy wouldn’t let him play.

Bitter? No, that’s the wrong word here. Johnston isn’t bitter. He wants to make that clear.

Johnston respects the United States Navy. He has a deep appreciation for the lessons it taught him, both at the Naval Academy and through four-plus years on active duty. He understands why the Navy rejected four separate requests for him to be placed in the reserves so he could pursue his dream of becoming a major leaguer.

“But,” Johnston admits, “I’m not going to say it was easy.”

It was, in fact, the opposite of easy.

Rather than earn promotions through the Oakland farm system, Johnston was deployed three times.

He went to the Persian Gulf twice — aboard the USS Peleliu, an amphibious assault ship; and the USS Curts, a frigate. He helped to defuse a pirate attack on a Singaporean vessel in the Gulf of Aden. And as far as August heat, the Texas League has nothing on Bahrain.

But now Johnston is off active duty, almost certainly for good. And when the independent California Winter League opens Saturday, he will suit up for his first nine-inning, keep-score game since June 9, 2008 — when the Navy called him back to active duty just 36 games into his professional career.

Read more at link.