I was 17 when I joined the U.S. Air Force. The Vietnam War wouldn’t be over for another few years, so Mama and Daddy took a little convincing, but finally, Daddy signed for me to enlist as a minor. Before I knew it, I was on my way to Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas.
Now, the first thing you learn in basic training is, when you “fall out,” you get into a straight line formation with everybody being in the same position.
One day, we were waiting for the sergeant. I don’t remember where he went, but in the meantime, we were standing there in formation. Suddenly we saw a skunk heading in our direction and was getting way too close for comfort. We didn’t know a lot about protocol yet, but we knew enough to be sure none of us wanted to get in trouble with the sergeant!
The guy closest to the skunk was clearly rattled and said, “What should we do???”
Without missing a beat, one of the others said, “We better salute him! He’s got more stripes than we do!!!”
