If you notice when Locke climbs down into the sub he knows how to turn on the lights and stuff like that (after the "little joke" about being in the navy to Ben), I don't know that the common man knows how to work stuff in a sub. If you look on the wall behind depressed Locke (when he's eating off the tv tray in his room) there is a poster or picture of special forces badges. Whoever called Locke to play Risk (at least we assume that's what the call was for, we assume it because of the proximity to the Risk game, but maybe it was something else) someone called him Colonel. (I would have chosen something higher...4 star General, or Admiral for a game of world domination) Maybe there is still more to Locke that we don't know. We don't know what he did as a young man (teens, early twenties). He does seem to have a great knowledge of survival skills - hunting with knives and tracking, etc... - as does Kate who admitted that she learned her skills from her dad, the one who had been in the military.

__________________

`Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle!'

-- Alice, from “Alice’s Adventure’s in Wonderland”