ianepperson

Not OP, but I've been in Toastmasters for over 10 years.

Practice practice. Have someone else listen to your speech and count the filler words (ah, um, so, you know, etc) and score you. It might help if they have some kind of clicker to give you immediate feedback.

These words are important in conversations as they communicate "I'm not done talking yet" but are unnecessary in presentations because there's other social cues to replace it. I've had to intentionally add "ah" back into my conversations when on a voice chat because people always thought I was done speaking or the chat dropped.

But not the Coast Guard.

I'm a liberal Gulf War veteran. Being a vet is not normally how I identify myself, but some really revel in that status.

They're only trying to appeal to those vets that wear the hat everyday.

"Hellooooo possums" instead of "danger zone"?

Yeah, that could work...

Tax rebates do not help low income people.