WELCOME TO THE U.S. AIR FORCE
Submitted by: The Old Okie
I had just finished high school in the small eastern Oklahoma town of Checotah, and was nearly through with my first semester at Oklahoma A&M College when the Korean War happened, and young men my age were being drafted. I figured that I was probably going to be an early choice by my local draft board. Fortunately, the college announced that it would permit their professors to award a final grade for that semester immediately, without requiring a final exam for students who volunteered for military service. I decided that, if I was going to be in any branch of military service, I preferred it to be the air force. So, I went around and obtained permission from all of my professors to get an early final grade, and went home to tell my parents and join the USAF. My dad put me in touch with the recruiting sergeant who handled our little town, and I packed my bags. It was January 9, 1951; the day after my 18th birthday.
There were eight of us from Checotah in the recruiter’s office the next day. We filled out all of the paperwork and were being briefed on what would happen next, when the recruiter received a phone call from some higher up, telling him that the USAF was frozen to enlistment in Oklahoma. The recruiter asked if he could send this last bunch to the induction center in Tulsa, and, after some discussion, we were given bus tickets and were on our way to Tulsa.
The Tulsa induction center, where all persons in Oklahoma being inducted into any branch of the military were processed, was a madhouse. The place was crowded with men who were either being drafted or, like my little group, were enlisting in a branch of the military. After a lot of confusion and delay, we were ushered into a room with a large group of men – all of whom were attempting to enlist in the air force -- to take a battery of aptitude tests. After we had completed the tests (which I recall took a few hours), an air force representative spoke to us to inform us that only three people from the state of Oklahoma would be allowed to enlist in the air force each day. And, he told us that the three who made the best scores on the aptitude tests would be selected. So, we were told to go back to the huge room that resembled a gymnasium without the bleachers to wait until the tests had been graded.
Our group of eight glumly sat together in a small area and waited. We didn’t talk much, but each of us was dreading to return to Checotah after saying our good-byes to family and friends. I was sitting quietly, thinking about all of that, when one of my friends told me that they were calling my name over the PA system. "Better get your ass in there,” he said. I was shocked to learn that I was one of the three being allowed to enlist that day. The other two were guys from California who, I learned later, had hitchhiked across each state between California and Oklahoma only to learn that each state had been closed to air force enlistment just before they got there. So, the three of us were sent to a room for the usual processing: Off with the clothes, cough while some guy felt your balls, and so on. As a group, we finally raised our hands and repeated the oath required of all enlistees. I was the last one to have blood drawn for testing. A truck driver in fatigues who was waiting to take us all to our hotel in a “six by” was standing and watching the medic getting ready to put the needle in my arm. He asked the medic if he could try it, and the medic said, “Sure,” and handed him the syringe. I wasn’t pleased as I watched him try to push the needle into my vein. I was very skinny, and my veins were quite prominent. Each time he tried to put the needle into the vein, the vein would roll to one side, and the needle would lightly prick my arm beside the vein. Both the truck driver and the medic would then laugh and make some joking remark. Although I wasn’t happy about the situation, it didn’t bother me as much as I’m sure they wanted it to. Finally, the medic took the syringe from the truck driver and took my blood. The next day, we were put on a train to the basic training facility at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas.
Maybe more later…
The Old Okie