Lackland uber ales

The Air Forcew had an extra 1st Lt. and they didn't know what to do with him so they put him in charge of the school at Lackland Air Force Base. They could have given me any number of assignments that would have been far worse.

A steady stream of recruits reported to Lackland. Many were graduates of religious colleges in the southern states. They were strong on theology but weak in sujects important to the military, like science and math.
I would have been nice had I been authorized to add them to my group, but the table of organization would not permit it.

I gave the instructors free hand. They came up with the idea of a night march - using recorded sounds of enemy fire.

We were trying to give kids training that would keep them alive under enemy fire. But the mothers complained that this was too rough on the recruits.

We also had to teach Military Law once a month. We had to read the regulations to them or something forgetable like that.
My instructors came up with the idea of having a military court - letting them participate in the process rather than read about it.

The Colonel in charge shot this idea down. Instead, we could watch them fall asleep trying to read and understand regulations.

There is not a more useless set of officers than Colonels.


The more colonels I meet the more respect I have for the non-commissioned officers. They are at their best when it comes to closing down an Air Force facility, such as a squadron. It works like this: Each squadron has an extensive inventory. When a squadron is closed they must account for every item in their inventory. Squadron A will phone squadronB to say that they have extra cots but are short several other items. A trade will be made and both squadrons will fill in gaps in their inventories.