Flacker Days

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...I was a "Flacker" (that's what the other Armed Services personnel called Air Force personnel).

I already touched on this in my earlier logs...but here is a little more. The ex-Marine Training Instructors were MSGT Taylor, TSGT Biles, and a SSGT we called "Hollywood" (behind his back). Sergeant Biles was the one who singled me out for "special care". Because we were in an experimental program, our basic training was compressed and shortened. If you think about it, this really invalidates the experiment because there was no real control group...and the personnel for this "Flight" (a group of 50 men) were "hand-picked" because the scored high on all the entrance test and most had some college...maybe that's why they dropped it, or maybe they dropped it because it was a "dumb idea" to start with.

Of the fifty in the Flight, I think 35 ended up in Military Intelligence. Some went to Biloxi, Mississippi for training, some went to Monterrey, California, some went to Bloomington, Indiana, some went to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and I and about four others went to San Angelo, Texas. Those of us from my Flight were added to other flights...there were about 250 of us who went through training at the same time. We all had very elite Top Secret clearances...so you will forgive me if I don't go into any details about what we did (yes, even after all these years). Suffice it to say we were analysts!! The training was very intense and was broken into four hour blocks. We had an early breakfast (6 AM) and began the first block at Seven O'clock...we broke at Eleven for lunch...began the second block at Noon...broke at Four for dinner...and started the final block at Five. After we finished at Nine, we still had about two hours of homework each evening. There wasn't a lot of time to "fool around" because the curriculum was set up on a six day training week. We really enjoyed Sundays...because after a mandatory Seven AM chapel...the rest of the day was ours (except for the four hours required to complete homework assignments). The program ran for six months culminating in Graduation (complete with a big party). There was an incentive for finishing "Number One" in the class of 250...you got to pick the country you were going to serve in for the next two years. The choices were: England, Germany, Italy, Crete, Japan, Turkey, and Pakistan. I "busted my hump" to finish number one and I was positive that I was going to England, but I didn't get the choice because they needed someone with my skills and abilities in Istanbul...the military never did have a good track record for keeping promises.

After completing training I got a 10-day leave to visit my family...and then set off for Istanbul.

That's the next post!!