I loved my time in the United States Air Force, and basic training was an experience I’ll always cherish. Because of poor equilibrium, I didn’t think I could get in, but God opened the door, enabling me to enlist. So I felt certain that He’d also help me get through basic training.
In military basic training, regardless of your branch of service, you march in formation everywhere you go. Due to my balance disorder, I had a lot of trouble with the marching aspect of my training. I was always out of step and running into someone because I couldn’t walk a straight line or maintain a consistent stride. The first week of training, my TI (Training Instructor) assigned me as a rear road guard. Each flight has eight road guards – four at the front and four at the rear. When approaching an intersection, the front road guards run ahead to stop traffic from all directions. When the flight is halfway through the intersection, the rear road guards relieve them so they can catch up and fall back into formation. Once the flight is completely through the intersection, the rear road guards catch up to the flight. We would march about four to six feet behind the flight, and I was on the far left, so there was only one person for me to bump into – the airman to my right. I liked being a road guard.
Then, in our open bay barracks, someone was always on guard duty. We served two-hour rotating shifts round the clock. It was the job of the dorm guard to maintain security in the dorm by ensuring all unguarded security drawers were locked and monitoring who came in and who left the dormitory. Therefore, the only one allowed to open the door was the dorm guard. Dorm guard was a tedious and boring position that no one enjoyed. You couldn’t sit, visit, write letters, or anything other than study or perform assigned dorm guard tasks, even when your shift fell in the middle of the night. And it was against Air Force regulations for anyone to pull more than two hours of dorm guard duty in a 24-hour period. So no one was assigned dorm guard duty as a means of punishment.
About three weeks into our training (the halfway point), our TI started drilling the flight for Honor Flight. They marched and marched. I couldn’t march, and someone had to guard the dorm. So my TI assigned me dorm guard duty. I had no problem with that. I felt that it was my contribution for our flight’s Honor Flight practice. There were days that I pulled dorm guard duty for up to six hours, not usually in succession. But I remember being relieved of dorm guard duty in my barracks and promptly heading downstairs to cover dorm guard for our baby flight, who had training that required the attendance of every airman in the flight. (On those training days, the mother flight provided an airman to stand dorm guard until the flight returned.)
I never complained about my situation. I figured the alternative was discharge because I couldn’t march, and I liked the Air Force. I wanted to stay in. So if the TI would graciously overlook my balance problem, I would gladly serve a few extra hours of dorm guard duty so those with good marching skills could drill for Honor Flight. That’s the way I viewed it.
One warm, sunny day, my TI sent for me. He had an envelope he wanted me to deliver on the other side of base. He sent another airman with me. She wasn’t pleasant company. She did nothing but complain about the way she felt I’d been mistreated. “He’s been so mean to you. You’re always on dorm guard duty. He treats you so unfairly. Even now, he’s making you walk across base to deliver something that he could drop off when he’s over there.”
Finally, I said to her, “You don’t get it. The flight is drilling for Honor Flight, and I can’t march. So he’s allowed me to keep dorm guard while the flight’s been practicing. To me, that’s much better than getting kicked out of the Air Force. And because I’ve been on dorm guard duty so much, I’ve hardly been outside for the last two weeks. So today he’s sending me on this errand to get me out of the barracks for awhile. And he sent you so I’d have some company on this long walk. And it’s a fabulous day for a walk.”
She said, “Oh, I guess I didn’t look at it that way.” After that, she was great company.
I had a wonderful TI. The first day of basic training, he said to us, “If I see you’re trying, I’ll bend over backwards to get you through.” And boy did he ever.
Incidentally, our flight earned Honor Flight.