I entered the Air Force in January 1957 at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. After riding on a train for three days from Detroit, buses took us from the train to the training center at Lackland. Corporals took us into a building, treating us like a bunch of cattle, and got us all a pair of fatigues. Half of them fit, and half of them didn’t. We were told to put all civilian clothes in boxes and send them home. One corporal stopped by me and said, “Let me take your clothes, and in six weeks you’ll get a pass and you can wear them to town. I’ll be holding them for you.” GREEN, GREEN, GREEN! I got my pass in six weeks but my clothes – and the corporal – were gone. When I was to ship out to tech school, I went to get my clothes. The corporal was on another three-day pass. He just happened to be the same size and build as I was.
Needless to say, that corporal got a nice jacket, shorts, pants and shoes from me! In all fairness, that corporal made a man out of me and lots of other guys.