However, things took an unexpected turn when the Cylon War broke out later that year. Although he excelled academically at business, he found it dull in practice. So he decided to join the Navy and see what the war held in store for him. Upon completion of OCS, he went through Flight School, where he was assigned into the ECO pipeline. He graduated Flight School as Top Candidate, which he saw as a sign that he would go far in the military.
And far he went. Although it took him two stints in the Fleet, he achieved the rank of Commander with a sterling service record by the end of 39 years of dedicated service. But while he excelled in his military career, his personal life was nothing short of disaster. He went through three marriages, all but one of them ending in divorce. He had little relationship with his parents and sister, and was never considered much of a father by his two children.
The failures of his personal life could be attributed to one of a number of factors. First and foremost is his post-traumatic stress disorder. He was formally diagnosed with PTSD during the First Cylon War after seeing heavy combat duty primarily as a Raptor-G ECO. As a result of flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, and increased anger and aggression, he was reassigned to Raptor-F variant craft. It was in one of these that he saw his first wife killed in action in 1995 over Caprica.
For the next six years, his PTSD worsened without proper treatment. He was quick to anger, prone to bursts of infuriated shouting and screaming at the slightest provocation, and became progressively more detached and numb. It was his condition and his unwavering devotion to the military that ended his second marriage with LT Jocelyn Nicander after four years. He lost custody of his daughter, Calliope Olivia Marshall-Nicander, in court.
But he was an excellent ECO and a natural leader, and the Fleet valued his anger as discipline enforcement, his aggression as fighting spirit, and his detachment as professionalism. They turned a blind eye to the multiple instances of flashbacks and sleepwalking and kept promoting him.
Three years after the War ended, he was given an honorable discharge from the Fleet with a pension as part of their force reduction. Lost and damaged, he settled on Picon and decided to further his education. It was there that he began seeking help for his PTSD and met Vanessa Winter, his psychiatrist. Within a year, they fell in love and got married; the next year, his son Rayner Ignatius Marshall-Winter was born.
After the birth of his son, he contacted his father for the first real time since he joined the Fleet. It wasn't a family call; he wanted a job. He began to work at the Picon Branch of Mammon Wealth Management Consultants, which had become an interplanetary firm by then. In 2007, he earned his PhD in Political Science from Eunomia University, but things were not going well for him in civilian life. In 2008, he was fired by his own father from Mammom WMC and divorced from Vanessa. Jobless and unattached, he went crawling back to the Fleet.
After five years of civilian life, he was reinstated in the Navy with a rank of Captain. He knew then that this would be the only life for him; he had to make the most of it. After doing his obligatory time as a Raptor ECO for three years, he was promoted to Major and assigned as the LSO of Battlestar Hyperion. Following that, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and posted to the Colonial Fleet Academy on Caprica as as instructor and training development officer.
It was a position that guaranteed a promotion, and sure enough, he was promoted to Colonel in 2021 and posted to Escort Carrier Pleides as her XO. It only took him three years after that to earn the rank of Commander. When asked where he wanted to go next, he chose Assaultstar Victory. It turned out to be a fortuitous choice: his tour as the Commanding Officer on the Victory was from 2024 to 2029; she deployed to Sagittaron near the end of his time there to deal with the Sagittaron Insurgency.
However, after playing a major part in negotiating the ceasefire of 2029, he was reassigned to Battlestar Columbus as her CO without a promotion. It was by no means a high-profile position, and he took it as a sign that the Fleet was preparing to let him go without promoting him any further. This was probably due to his PTSD worsening again as the Sagittaron campaign went on. Some said that he looked seemed to negotiate a cease-fire.
After four years as CO of Battlestar Columbus, he gracefully retired from the service at the age of 62. He was known during his time in command as a strict, old-school leader who could inspire his followers in any situation with a rousing speech. People trusted and followed him, even if they didn't particularly like him as a person. He was a hard-ass, had few friends, but possessed an undeniable charisma.
Upon his retirement, he settled down on Tauron and became a freelance military analyst, drawing upon his many years in the Fleet as well as his education in Political Science. In 2036, he was asked by the Tauron government to become their advisor on military affairs; he accepted.
When Warday struck, he was touring an abandoned bunker installation left over from the First Cylon War, as he had been asked by the Tauron government to compile a report on the feasibility of converting such facilities for other uses instead of demolishing them. Thus, he was able to survive the Cylon attack. He managed to hold out on Tauron until he was picked up by Cerberus.
