I joined the USAF after graduating from high school in 1958.

I had been working for the local newspaper for the previous 9 years as a paper boy plus working in the office and mailing papers to the rural route subscribers, so I joined to learn printing.

During basic training we were informed that some of us had been selected to take a mandatory language test (the first one ever done). At the test, where there seemed to be a thousand people, we were told that we were to be given the first two weeks of the Yale University Institute of Far Eastern Languages Chines Mandarin language course over the next few days and tested to see how much we retained.

About 100 of us passed this section and were told we could pick any language that we wanted and might be able to be trained in it. We were told that the top choice would be Chinese, but it was up to us to choose and we could refuse the language training entirely, if we chose to.

Later, back in the barracks,I thought long and hard about this and was still trying to decide when my Drill Instructor asked what I was worrying about. I told him and he replied "I have been trying to enter the language program for 10 years. If you refuse I will kick your ass!" I immediately accepted and have never been sorry.

I completed both the Basic (1958) and the Intermediate (1960) Chinese Mandarin courses at Yale and served 2 tours overseas before taking my discharge.

Because of the intense training I endured, I was convinced I could work at whatever I wanted to do.