AF16841861

Forty-four years ago today, I enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and flew to Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas.

The photo is from one of those automated photo booths at the Base Exchange.

I can even remember my serial number (AF16841861 – a 168 palindrome with 41 in the middle), which was years before the military started using Social Security numbers as service member serial numbers.

I had a brilliant 41-day career in the 3703rd Basic Military Training Squadron before I was given a medical discharge for allergies.

I guess that qualifies me as a Vietnam-era veteran, but that’s a claim I will never make out of deference to the guys who really served and fought.

Curiously, we ran into a couple of Air Force recruiters at lunch and explored the possibilities of Austin getting the fire fighting training he wants in the Air Force. One of the two tech sergeants had been an Air Force fire fighter for 10 of his 15 years in uniform and opined it’s easier to get fire fighting training in the Air Force than in civilian life. We will, of course, alert Austin to this possibility.