March 17, 1967. I went down to the Armed Forces Induction Depot, Portland, Oregon, went into the large ceremony room, stood with about a dozen other men and took the oath of enlistment (for the first time):
"I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."
Then I accompanied most of these enlistees out to the airport and flew off to Officer's Training School, where, 3 months later, I was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force.
How they handled us boot recruits during enlistment was an eye-opener. The Army enlistees/draftees (some of both) were led away, to wait for a certain-sized group to be gathered, then they were taking a bus for California, to Fort Ord, IIRC, to begin boot camp. The Coasties, about 4 of them, were lead off by a Coastie PO3 to the airport, where they sat in a tight group until time to board our commercial flight to LAX. There weren't any Navy or USMC, and I was the only USAF. I was traveling on my own orders, as I would do many times later on in my career. This amazed the Coasties, especially, that a boot recruit could be trusted to fly down to Texas on his own. I rubbed it in by "reporting" to the concourse bar and having a drink while waiting for my flight. The Coasties could only watch from a distance.
Arriving at LAX, I had a 5-hour delay before my next flight to San Antonio, so I took a cab over to my first cousin's house in West LA and we had dinner and drinks, then she took me back to the airpatch to catch my next flight.
At San Antonio, I read a sign which directed me to a special telephone on the Ground Transportation Concourse, and I called the Duty Officer at Lackland AFB, who patched me through to OTS at Medina Annex. I was told to wait in the concourse for two hours, when another flight was arriving with more OTs, then they would send a van to pick us up.
I passed my first military test by following all THOSE orders, then at Medina, no hassle, no barking at me, I just signed some papers and was shown my barracks and bunk.
Officer Training School was all downhill from there, but those details are boring...
Happy Anniversary, RD, and thanks for your service!
Posted by: Aaron Neal | March 17, 2011 at 19:33