[78-L] tolerance

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jack Palmer" <vdalhart at earthlink.net>
> I spent 20 years in the US Air Force 
>
Interesting! I spent four years and two months in the USAF; my brother
(a "lifer" in the USAF) was signing up, so the recruiter was a regular
visitor to our house. When LBJ suddenly "changed the rules" on my
student deferment...and I received my "Greetings" from my Draft Board...
the recruiter told me "Just sign here...if you pass the physical, we'll put
you in the USAF, where we can use your electronic skills...and if you
don't pass, you wouldn't have had a problem anyway!"

I passed...wound up in a Comm outfit, assigned to a radio relay station
on the summit of the Zugspitze (Germany's highest mountain)! Finished
my three years in Germany, and had to extend two months to get a
six-month assignment to "Auxilliary Field #9, Eglin AFB" just outside
of Fort Walton Beach, Florida!

The local "Best Western" motel had an open-stage jam session; the
rules were that if one got up and played, one's libations were "on
the house" for the rest of the night! I also met a lot of the other
"partiers"...FWB was a GREAT party town, since the last beer
joint in town closed at 6 a.m. just as the one across highway 90
opened! I became acquainted with a "tech rep" on our project
who had a $90/day "per diem"...he put all my libations on HIS
tab...?!

I credit myself with having had (WITHOUT trying!?) probably
the LEAST "military" military career! In 4-1/6 years, I never
shot at anybody, nor was I shot AT?! Only had my had on a
"weapon" twice; the second time was when my new "fresh out
of ROTC" commander decided we should all actually qualify
on the firing range (a detail usually taken care of with a pencil?!).
Our results were SO bad that (1) it became evident why the
pencil was the chosen "weapon"...and (2) if a war broke out,
we would have been MUCH more likely to shoot one another
than the enemy!

Steven C. Barr