Break-up diamonds

More from Mr. W., the 92 year old retired former Chief Petty Officer (CPO)...

Mr. W.: I accumulated quite a collection of diamond rings over the years; 43 to be exact.

Me: How did you do that?

Mr. W.: Most of the enlisted men looked to me as a father figure. Whenever I would see one of my boys hanging his head I would say, "whats got you so down soldier?" Many times they would tell me they had just broken up with their fiancee. I would then say, "you got the ring back, didn't you?" A lot would say, "I didn't know I was supposed to get the ring back." I would say, "Hell yeah you should get it back. You should get it back and then sell it for whatever you can get for it" and I would always let them know I would be happy to take it off their hands. I even bought one for $10 once."

He had over a twenty year career as a CPO so it works out to about 2 diamond rings/year by my calculations.