This is part three of a multi-post about my career in the Air Force. Start from the beginning if you like.
In part two I gave you the itinerary of each day of training. In this post, I am going to point out specific things that happened during basic training and close with graduation day.
One day was spent talking with personnel about what job we wanted. 
I replied I would like to be a programmer. They said alright, take this test and it will let us know if you are a good match. The test was for graphically inclined people and had no programming questions. It was all shapes and figures you had to fold or move mentally to match the answering image. This makes me think they already knew what I would be doing. Had they tested me in an actual programming language, I would have had no problem impressing them. This is the only thing I was ever disappointed about in the Air Force. "Instead of programming how about these selections?" Only one of them sounded interesting to me and somehow they probably knew which I would choose. I said I think Command and Control Specialist is what I would like to be. They thought that was a good choice. I will tell you more about why I think this was all planned in a future post. We also went over the G.I. Bill. If we gave $100 a month of our paycheck for a year they would give us so much money to go to college. At the time, I think it was $21,000. I didn't like the idea of losing that much money but I agreed to it. I'm glad I did because it paid for most of my Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science. Yes, the very thing they wouldn't let me do for the Air Force. I might be a little bitter about that. Make sure you get G.I. Bill if you ever join the armed forces. It is a great benefit!
The layout of the dorm was a rectangular room with a wall down the middle. The heads of each bunk bed were against the middle wall on both sides. I think we had 25 to 30 guys in our squadron. I slept in the bottom bed. Against the borders of the walls were the lockers. At the far end of the room was a wall that you walked around to get to the showers and bathroom. There was one exit (maybe two but I don't recall another exit) and since we were on the second floor, we had to walk down stairs to get out. There were no windows and the ceiling had panes of florescent lights. The floors were light green with square tiles. The walls were yellow. The fact that I still remember this 23 years later lets you know this place really left an impression.
The first week was hard. You had to learn to put on your uniform as quickly as possible including lacing up boots. They would ride you until you got it all done and I would fumble around trying to quickly do things and that just made things worse. On top of that, the beds had to be made perfectly. After a couple days, I got smart and found a way to slip in my covers without messing up the bed too much. I would still have to tighten everything when I got up but it was easier. Remembering how to tie shoes came back to me after a couple of days and things started to get a little easier. It's amazing how being harassed non-stop will make you forget the easiest of things.
My Uncle joined the Marines right before I joined the Air Force and his basic training was very physical. The Air Force is much less physical and is more about getting into your head. We would get demerits, pieces of paper letting us know what we did wrong. The one with the least of these would get an extra ribbon to wear on their uniform after graduation. Basically the one person the drill sergeants never saw or harassed. No, I was not the one. It is probably because I would always laugh at myself when I screwed up. That infuriated the drill sergeants more when I did that but I couldn't help myself. I'm sure they thought I was laughing at them or something. I don't know how many of those demerit slips I received but they kept coming.
I remember one time, about the third week, I was asked to go the women's dorm to help with something they themselves could have done. I think they were trying to get into the women's heads by bringing a guy over. They probably told the women a guy was coming and when I got there it was a big let down since I weighed 119 pounds and had no muscle definition :) I think I got a demerit while I was helping there as well. Probably forgot to report or screwed it up somehow having an audience of women. Hmm, maybe they were messing with my mind that day :)
There was one day we raked the grounds around a building on base. I hated raking at home but being cooped up in that dorm room will sure change your mind about things. I love being in the sun and getting to be outside doing anything was better than being in the dorm. As I said previously, I enjoyed the exercise and marching. We would practice marching on a field and then march around the base. Without the backpack weighing me down, I could actually look around and see my surroundings and enjoy the mid-June fresh air. There were large cargo planes, small jets, some moving, some sitting still, and I wanted to see them all up close. I would not be allowed to during training though.
Remember the chili mac meal I talked about? Well they served that a lot, much to my enjoyment. I couldn't get enough of it. When I said it was the best meal I had ever had, it was because I was starving, not because it tasted spectacular. The food was good but it is made for hundreds of people. Our squadron made a song about the chili mac. It is much too hard to sing in this venue but put yourself into a southern state of mind and sing, "Chiii-iily Mac, Let me tell you about, Chiii-iiily Mac..."
The week before graduation we were allowed to go to a club and mingle with the women in basic training. I danced with one of them, and had I not had a girlfriend back home, I would have asked her for her number. We did not kiss, just enjoyed each other's company for the short time we were allowed.
As you can tell, it was not hell all the time. Our squadron had a lot of fun during our down times. We got to go see the San Antonio Spurs play and we were the loudest in the arena. Our drill sergeants enjoyed us and near the end became much less hostile toward us. They break you down and build you back up. It is really an interesting psychological experience. Before I went to the Air Force I walked around with my head and eyes looking at my feet. I was very shy. Actually I'm still somewhat shy but less than before training. After I graduated basic training, my head never looked down and my eyes were always looking everywhere. I would say my posture improved but my Dad instilled that lesson in me when I was young. Still, with my head no longer looking down, my posture had to improve even more.
On graduation day, we put our "blues" on. The drill sergeants were not harassing us to hurry and we got ourselves looking sharp. Shiny shoes, straight tie, ironed shirt and pants, and hat sitting as it should on the head. We did this for ourselves, not for anyone else. This was our time to shine, to show the world, our superiors we would not let them down when we left basic training and went into our "chosen" career positions. Yes, we were proud of the men we had 
become. After we were ready and in position, we marched to the graduation ceremony. There were hundreds of us, men and women. Each squadron standing in parade rest waiting for the chance to march in front of the officers waiting to accept us as soldiers of the Air Force. When it was our squadron's turn, the drill sergeant called us to attention and marched us in front of the officers. We were commanded to look right (eyes right) and salute as we marched by. The officer saluted back and we marched back to our position to await the rest of the squadrons' graduation march.
After graduation, we were able to visit with our family and friends. My Mom, my girlfriend's Mom, and my girlfriend came to the graduation. I was so glad to see them all. Still in my blues, we visited the River Walk in San Antonio and talked about basic training. After the day ended and I had to return, I said goodbye to them and went back to the dorm to await the journey to tech school where we would learn about our new job...
No comments:
Post a Comment