#i know the MOS switch is highly unlikely and the timeline isn't super realistic

[hosannachicago]

Clarke's military service

The One Chicago writers really did change the details about Jeff Clarke's military service every single time it was mentioned.

In one episode of season 2, Mills tells the rest of the house that Clarke served in the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines and was in "one of the bloodiest battles of the war" (presumably the 2nd Battle of Fallujah).

About three episodes later, Clarke himself says he was "1st Recon." That means the Marines 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, which fought in the 1st Battle of Fallujah.

Then by the time Clarke completed his first 3 years of med school in 2 years (or maybe did his 1st year of med school while working 24 hour shifts, studying for and passing the CFD Lieutenant's test [why???], navigating a contentious divorce, and taking a month off to hang out in jail awaiting trial on murder charges?), he was supposedly an Army veteran. (Why would Choi, also a veteran, get that wrong?)

Given all the inconsistencies, for the purposes of my AU, I'm sticking with what Clarke said himself, since he's the one who would know. My "head canon" is that Mills was mistaken because he was a literal child during Fallujah and didn't have the context to understand whatever Clarke told him.

And, of course, I'm fully disregarding the idea that he was in the Army, because that's nonsense... but I have incorporated his friendship with Jeff Manning and the fact that they were in Afghanistan together.

Solely for the purposes of my AU (this isn't canon at all), Clarke changed his MOS from Recon to ARFF (Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting) when he re-enlisted, sometime around 2008. After that, he served in Afghanistan, where he was friends with Jeff Manning.

(Also, wholly in my AU: Jeff married Lisa, who was also from Chicago, around 2006. They lived at Camp Pendleton near San Diego, CA, until Jeff switched MOS in 2008, at which point he went to training in TX and Lisa moved back to Chicago. They didn't actually live together full-time again until Jeff completed his active duty in the Marines in 2012.)