During the early 1960s, at Schilling Air Force Base in Salina, Kansas, was an active Strategic Air Command (SAC) base with KC-135s ready to gas up SAC birds.
The best part was some sage advice the major in command provided. He told us officer trainees that the reason basic training was such a "Mickey Mouse" operation was to instill in us a determination to succeed at all costs for whatever mission we were tasked with. He said it was geared that way on purpose, so that we could function under pressure from very simple stimuli. It directly applied, he said, when you might be short on supplies, short on personnel, not feeling well yourself, and many other details which could pull your mission apart. We became intimately familiar with some of the military expressions, such as SNAFU and other equally colorful ways to describe your experiences.
I'm retired now and consider this a great positive in my life, as it has served me well with many civilian experiences. It really does take more than Gen. George Patton saying "get in there and fight."
My best Air Force experience was meeting Gen. Jimmy Doolittle in person at a Dining In while at Adair Air Force Station, Oregon. We were part of the 26th Air Division, USAF Air Defense Command.