My greatest memory of basic training in 1967 at Lackland Air Force Base (AFB), Texas, was being selected to be a contestant for a new show about women and military men. It was just three weeks before Christmas, and I and over 60 other airmen basics were marched to a barracks and told about an opportunity to be on TV nationwide.
I guess they were looking for certain types of people and a cross-section of the nation (e.g., someone from the East Coast, West Coast and central United States). We all were given the chance to read from a book, and when they liked what they heard from certain airmen, those people were chosen to be on the show. I was one of three airmen chosen to perform on the show. Actually, none of us three had any idea of what we were to do.
That next Friday night, we three were escorted into a stadium at Lackland with at least 25,000 military personnel in attendance. We were led backstage and met with the host of the show. He was a young, clean-shaven comedian with a wave in his hair named George Carlin. Carlin was not that well-known back in 1967, but he was a good comedian and host for the show. We three airmen came to represent the three sections of America: I played someone from New York, another pretended to be from Chicago and the third from California. We were each given a slip of paper with several sentences on it that we were to read to a woman on stage. I have to say that the text that I was given to read was more flattering to a woman than the other two had been given. Their text had them bragging about themselves. I was the third airman to get on stage, and after being introduced by Carlin, I was directed to sit on a bench with this fabulous, good-looking movie star, Fran Jeffries. I sat down next to her, reading and sometimes making mistakes reading, which came to be to my advantage. For example, I remember saying to her, "Oh, my princess, my darling, my jewel, my pet, I'll give you anything my heart desires, I mean, your heart desires." With that, the crowd of thousands went wild. I was supposed to kiss her after my little speech. I did, but I was so nervous that I almost knocked her and myself off the bench. Of course, I got a big response from that.
Now came the time to determine the winner. They had something called the Applause Meter to determine the loudness of the applause and the winner. Needless to say, when Carlin announced my name, the sound was deafening and the Applause Meter jumped to the right, practically off the scale. I was declared the winner and was awarded a three-night stay in Hollywood, Calif., all expenses paid. I eventually had to take the money equivalent though, because of all the technical schools I had to attend before my first assignment.
Will I ever forget that event? No way. That was a once-in-a-lifetime event, and I can truly say I had my 15 minutes of fame.