Deep cuts, but what if "I was raised by many people" is less a statement about Snake's literal childhood and more an expression of feeling far too young to go to war? That the people who raised him were also his mentors and comrades on the battlefield?
I'm not saying I don't fw the foster kid background (because I love the depth there), but I also feel like the context of Snake's conversation with Meryl is that he was purposefully obfuscating his origins.
She was trying to build intimacy; he was trying to push her away with terse answers.
He's also been born and bred to be a weapon, so I think it's reasonable to include his marksmanship instructor, the people who taught him all those languages, the ones who had him drilling his memory the way the Marines do (talk to a Marine about it; it's fascinating what they do), his Airborne instructor...
There's, like, a shitton of boot shit you need to do before you're a Green Beret, and he was inducted in his teens.
