Those were my hours too...7 days a week.
Most of my time in construction was spent as a tunneller on continental shifts, away from the family for months on end and doing hard graft.
Personally I think you're full of it.
My father was 30 years in the Royal Navy so I know all about that too.
He then taught for 15 years at the Army Apprentices college. That's the man who also taught ME the meaning of hard work. A man who served 6 years in a REAL war.
Sometimes my dad was away for up to a year at the other side of the world and my mother and us 4 kids managed. No internet or mobile phones either.
