On the third day I was in the Army, our company was lined up outside the barracks—all 350 of us. The burly, loud, foul-mouthed sergeant was hollering things that didn’t make too much sense. Then, he asked for eight volunteers, and everybody was quiet. I tried to look smaller than I already was because everybody knows in the Army you don't volunteer for anything. Of course, the sergeant started fuming because nobody from the 350 men volunteered. Threats started coming from his mouth between his profanities. Slowly, two men volunteered, then another and another, until he had his eight.

Next, he sent the eight "dumb bells" to the barracks to take the day off, and all the rest of us were marched at double time to the airfield, where we spent the afternoon cleaning and washing airplanes.