On Christmas break, my final. extra semester at the University of Wisconsin, I received a notice that I was drafted into the Army. 1969 was the last year that every healthy male was required to enter military service. My four year college exemption from the draft had expired.
This was near the end of the Viet Nam War, but the action was still heavy and the casualties were many. I had no interest in any part of that, so I immediately took my draft notice to an Air Force recruiter in Green Bay with fingers crossed. I was lucky they needed officers, so the recruiter pre-dated an application for officer training school and I was accepted. He told me while selling me on the idea that because I was going to be an officer, I did not have to worry about being hazed and having my head shaved. Liar!
April – June 1969, Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas
I had graduated college and waited a couple of months for my Officer Training to start. The night before I was to enter the Air Force, I remember staying at a hotel in Milwaukee. It was a sleepless night with my wife because we were completely disoriented and a bit scared. I could sense my life and my level of comfort was about to change in a very big way.
The next morning I reported to the induction center and spent the day getting prodded by medical staff and even taking a psychology test. That afternoon we were herded onto a plane and flown to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio Texas. I remember arriving there and being sent to a large auditorium filled with scared guys like me. We were fed sandwiches and spent the next eight hours, into the wee hours of the night, just sitting there, not being told anything. I was exhausted. Finally, we were picked up in groups of about thirty and sent to a dormitory that housed four guys in a room with two bunk beds, just like in the movie Officer and a Gentleman.
We were allowed about three hours sleep before we were awakened early the next morning to get our heads shaved. So much for officer trainees getting special treatment. At the time, having a shaved head was not the “in-thing” that it is now. We were devastated at our new look.
It was a twelve week process. The first six weeks, were spent in physical training and taking classes on military philosophy and procedure. We never just walked, we marched everywhere. I was told I needed to lose a little weight, so I was given extra physical activities. We scrubbed our dorm facilities on weekends with buckets and mops and even scrubbed bathroom floors with toothbrushes. We were exhausted. We had to eat at attention and were only allowed five minutes to finish. It was very hot, in the nineties and humid. We slept in our underwear on top of the bed, so that it was easier to get ready for early morning inspection. It is amazing how close you get to the guys that you go through this process with. The trouble is, once we graduated and moved on, you never see them again.
After six weeks, we became upper classman as the next group of inductees was brought in. This entitled us to special privileges. On Saturday nights, we had an officer trainee club that had a bar and dance floor. I remember drinking a lot of beer and seeing many beautiful girls there, but, being unavailable since I was married at the time, I did not pursue any. It was a single guys paradise for that one night a week.
We had to meet certain weight and conditioning standards, which I met and I finally graduated a second lieutenant. My father and mother along with my Uncle Don and is wife Jane came down to San Antonio to attend my graduation ceremony. They had all spent many years in the Army and loved watching the marching and military ceremony.
We were then given our assignments. I had been hoping for California or any place in the west, but was assigned as Missile Launch Officer at McConnel Air Force Base in Wichita Kansas. I then left for a thirty day leave in Green Bay before the next phase of my Air Force life with my buzz-cut haircut and a very trim body.
Next: Titan Missile Training