On December 16th, 1991, Howard and Maria Stark are assassinated. Anthony Edward Stark, their only son, becomes the heir to the Stark fortune and the company.
With no living relatives left, Tony leaves the company in the capable hands of one Obadiah Stane and follows his only family member – James Rhodes – into the service. (James has bee his brother since MIT, the only person who stood up for the young genius, offered him a home for the holidays, and made sure he was never alone when he needed it.)
At the age of 21, Tony signs up for the United States Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer on the Nuclear track. He’s a certified genius, so he could have chosen to work as a Nuclear Engineer, but he thought ships were the way to go. He could do shore duty after the fact.
For his first sea tour, Tony is stationed on the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt where he’s in command of a bunch of nuclear operators. It’s decent enough. After that, he’s off to Naval Nuclear Power School where he’s capable of teaching his classes in the second week. (It’s really not that hard, guys.) After that, it’s off to Prototype where he’s fixed half the training equipment they’re learning about and half his class hates him.
Oh well. It gets him a promotion.
For his second sea tour, Tony is stationed aboard the U.S.S. Harry S. Truman for her maiden voyage. He rises to the rank of Commander quickly and relatively efficiently, by being superb at his job and making sure his sailors are too. He’s a crowd favorite on the Truman - both for his extensive knowledge and his quick wit.
(He could have been a Captain but he always did like getting his hands dirty - and Admirals didn’t like being given offensive nicknames. How was he supposed to know?)
He should have known that having a team of SEALs aboard his vessel was bad news.
Long story short, he stops a French power plant from melting down with the help of Steve McGarrett and his outfit when a group of extremists try to manually detonate the reactor like a bomb. There may or may not be some ordering around that occurs given that Tony outranks one McGarrett, but he gets over it (Tony thinks).
After France, they go their separate ways and Tony thinks that’s the last he’ll hear from Steve.
Until he’s on shore assignment in Hawaii overseeing work on the new Ford-class nuclear supercarrier and Steve McGarrett asks him to transfer to the Reserves.
Well. Guess he’s Five-0 then.
(Tagging @ruthlessmeans @hoouna @jerseysass because it’s relevant :3)