Commander Whitelist Application
Your story (potential topics listed below) Odell originally began as a squad engineer, after a recommendation from the Institute of Space Wranglers, he joined the marines. Odell had a few uneventful deployments, until one fateful deployment, him and his battalion was ambushed by the CLF.
The CLF may have had inferior weapons, but they outnumbered the Marines 10 to 1. They fought long and hard, there weren't many marines left when defcon 1 was reached, and the CO decided to deploy the nuke. Odell was recalled and re-deployed with the remaining men and the nuke and activated the nuke as soon as they landed.
Only Odell and a few others survived until the explosion and only he survived the explosion, as the PO's were too cowardly to return while an armed nuke was on the planet.
Odell awoke back on the ship with tubes attached to every orifice on his body and a new rank pinned to him; Staff Sergeant. From there, he survived every protection detail he was sent on and every mishap that had happened. Until he was promoted to CMP. After leading his team of MP's and successfully repelling a mutiny, he was awarded CO for his leadership skills.