David Irons was a tad overanxious when it came to beginning his military career.

His first experience with the armed forces was, as a 14-year-old, lying about his age to join the Marine Corps in 1945.

“He lasted about three days,” said Janet Irons, his wife of 66 years.

“They said they had information that I wasn’t as old as I said I was,” Irons, 85, recalled. “The officer said, ‘I want to know the absolute truth now. If you’ve just got a few months to go before you qualify age-wise, we’ll just forget about it. So how old are you?’

“I couldn’t deceive the man,” he chuckled. “I told him I was 14 and he said, ‘Goodbye!’”

Irons, a Sammamish resident of 28 years, would later go on to serve over 31 years with the U.S. Coast Guard. He does a fair amount of chuckling and smiling now when recalling his service and attempting to serve in two branches of the military. Irons said his time with the Coast Guard provided him a diversified career that took him around the globe.

“It was a fun time,” Irons said, acknowledging he was never in a war zone. “I still can’t believe they paid me to do it.”

There was no great moment that inspired Irons to enlist when he did at the end of World War II, only the search of a young person trying to find himself.

Irons originally grew up on a farm in central Minnesota, in the small town of Deer Creek. When he was 12, Irons moved to Seattle with his parents. He said his transition as a farm boy moving to the big city was not easy.

“I was somewhat lost,” he said.

Irons called the climate of the World War II era “a time of unlimited patriotism.” When he enlisted in the Coast Guard in 1947, he did so on his birthday, which is on New Year’s Eve. With parental consent, Irons was able to enlist as a 17-year-old. He picked the Coast Guard for its “primary mission of law enforcement and search and rescue.”

“Search and rescue is a very satisfying career. It’s one of the few careers that I’ve seen where the philosophy of search and rescue is that failure is not an option,” he said. “You go out and you can’t quit because usually there are lives at stake. There’s a lot of satisfaction in doing that.”

If you sit down with Irons, he will tell you his stories of responding to those in distress. He becomes joyously emotional when reminiscing about his service. His career took him to places around the globe that include Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and Italy.

“You been down to the flight museum?” he will ask. “If you see a Coast Guard helicopter hanging in the museum, I flew that. H-52.”

When asked how his service influenced him, Irons pauses and responds in a hushed, reflective tone.

“I learned a lot. I grew up in the Coast Guard. I learned responsibility, leadership, capability … I am a firm believer in universal military training,” he said. “Now that’s a World War II philosophy, but it is so true that nothing in life will ever give you more experience than an opportunity to not only serve your country, but to serve with your fellow country men and women in a disciplinary environment such as the military. That’s where you grow up. I think it’s great.”

Irons retired as a captain with the Coast Guard in 1979, having served as chief of aviation as well as a commanding officer of three different air stations. After retirement, Irons owned and operated a small cable television business, All Points Cable TV, that served primarily in Eastern King County. When he sold it in 1996, he said he had over 5,000 subscribers with 300 miles of underground and overhead cable.

Currently, David and Janet head their business Composite &Casting Supply, a wholesale distribution company for composite material.

“He has so much ambition, there isn’t a lazy bone in his body. He’s always got to be working,” Janet said.

When Veterans Day has rolled around in the past, Irons said he has participated in local ceremonies, though this year he will be traveling to Arizona. He’s a member of the North Bend-Snoqualmie VFW. He added Veterans Day means a great deal to all veterans, though in some cases, it may be easy for it to go unnoticed.

“I never met a veteran that didn’t revere that day,” he said. “Most of them probably do it very quietly, but the appreciation is there.”