With the conclusion of the month of May, we have Memorial
Day. It was originally called Decoration
Day as it was a time when surviving members of the families of fallen Union soldiers
from the Civil War decorated the graves of their relatives who died in that
war. Later on, the meaning and the name
was changed to Memorial Day to include all soldiers who had fallen in various other
wars.
As a veteran of the United States Air Force (1961-1965), Memorial
Day is special. I was fortunate enough
to serve during peace time but the end of May was still a time when my buddies
and I took time to show special respect to the guys who preceded us and had
physically fought to keep America great.
I must admit that when I was a kid, I looked at Memorial Day
as a day off from school and that is about it. When I turned 18 and got my
draft card, I began to have a different outlook. With that card in my pocket I suddenly faced
the fact that I was going to have to serve my country in the Armed Forces
whether I liked it or not. By age 20 I had
not been called but knowing it was inevitable, I joined the United States Air
Force and was sent to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas for basic
training.
It was a case of getting a “baptism of fire” as I was
quickly transformed from a kid living at home eating Mom’s cooking to living in
a barracks with 70 other guys from 70 different towns and eating in “chow halls.” Along with that, I had two sergeants constantly
telling me and the other guys what a bunch of losers we were and that we better
“Shape up!”
It was a classic case of the military using their methods to
transform boys into men. For most of us,
it worked as we settled into the program and became troopers. For about ten guys who couldn’t adjust, they
were sent home with the chore ahead of them of explaining to their friends how
they couldn’t “cut it.”
After five weeks of basic training, some of us were sent to
various tech schools to learn specific jobs.
In my case I was sent to Amarillo Air Force Base in Texas to attend
Supply School. After three months I was assigned to Whiteman
Air Force Base in Missouri where I spent the rest of my four years except for
temporary duty in Germany from June to October of 1963. On September 10, 1965, I
was discharged.
In retrospect, it was a great four years. I did a lot of growing up and met a lot of
people from both ends of the spectrum.
In 1973, the government discontinued the draft which I think was a
gigantic mistake. A lot of guys did some
serious growing up by serving their country.
It’s a quality sadly missing from many today.
