I had just turned 18 years of age when I enlisted in the Air Force in March 1952 and was assigned to Sampson Air Force Base for basic training. I arrived there on a Sunday afternoon at about 4 p.m. Our training instructor called our flight to attention for the first time.

"What is the lowest form of animal life?" he asked.

One person answered paramecium and another amoeba.

"Wrong," the training instructor said in a loud, nasty voice to both answers. "The lowest form of animal life is whale shit, but for the rest of this camp you guys will be the lowest form of animal life. You will be lower than whale shit."

At that point my knees started shaking and I think the knees of everybody else in the flight started shaking also.

The training instructor kept his word; however, because I was raised in the hills of Western Pennsylvania, I was in super physical shape and knew how to use a gun, and so I found basic training to be quite easy. But my knees still shake when I think of that first encounter with our training instructor.

John O’ Hara, Ph.D.
3038 Traymore Lane
Bowie, MD 20715
(H) 301-262-5867
(C) 301-351-8839
jhohara@aol.com