Mr. Little and The Grinch

My squad (element) leader during Air Force basic training at Lackland AFB in the spring of 1973 was a somewhat eccentric character by the name of Michael Little. As I recall, he was a Flight Officer in the Civil Air Patrol and had joined the Air Force with the intent of eventually becoming a mercenary in Belize (a Central American country then engaged in a conflict with Guatemala). He had been corresponding with their military leaders, and yes - I thought that was pretty odd.

So, one Sunday afternoon near the end of basic they loaded a bunch of us onto a bus and hauled us off base to help prepare a nearly little league field for the upcoming season... BTW: It felt really strange to be out in the real world after more than a month in hell, and it felt even stranger be treated as if we were human. Yes - the "civilian" adults were even expressing appreciation (as if we were there by choice)... It was just too weird :-) But that's not the point of the story:

At one point someone was moving some rocks near the edge of the field and uncovered a sizable rattlesnake. Everyone was freaking out and trying to decide if they should kill it when Airman Little ran over yelling: "What is wrong with you guys? He won't hurt you!" Then he non-nonchalantly picked it up and carried it off into the woods...

After a brief period of stunned disbelief somebody asked him why he wasn't afraid of being bitten and his response was something along the lines of:  "Snakes don't generally bite when you disturb their hibernation, and even if they do it's treatable... Plus, I've been bitten by more venomous snakes than I can count."
Obviously, that statement required a bit more clarification, and it turned out that his father was a biology professor in Georgia whose specialty was "swamp critters", and Airman Little had spent a significant percentage of his life deep in the Okefenokee Swamp helping his father do field research...So yeah - he had a great deal of experience (good and bad) with things "creepy and crawly" - and that actually explained a lot :-)

Now - if you were expecting there to be more to the "Little" story, I'm afraid that's about it... He was just an all-around "interesting character" (and a huge Tolkien fan)... When we got to Keesler AFB (tech school) we hung out at first, but then he borrowed a sizable chunk of money from me to buy a wig (seriously!) and he didn't pay it back until a couple of months after he promised. I was so mad that I didn't spend much time with him afterward...
It was a invaluable lesson: People who borrow money from their friends do so because because they can't manage their own. So (despite their best intentions) they almost invariably have problems paying it back...

And on to the second topic:

Everyone called Airman Juneau "The Grinch" because ... well ... there was a slight resemblance:

FYI: This picture was taken at Keesler AFB sometime during the summer of 1973 (and that's my 1968 Barracuda convertible he's leaning on).

Despite the fact the The Grinch grew up in Florida close to the Okefenokee Swamp, there was no connection between him and Little. (As a matter of fact, I don't think they much liked each other.) The reason I've included them in the same post is because they were the two guys from basic training that I spent the most time with later on...

I suppose I should mention Airman Copley too... The main thing I remember about him was that he wore auto-darkening prescription glasses and the TIs were always giving him crap about them (sunglasses were "verboten" in formation). So, he kept a note is his pocket documenting that they were medically necessary... (Funny - I hadn't thought about that for many years.)
And I shouldn't leave out Airman Eubanks... He was married, and a smoker, which made basic training extra tough... I honestly wasn't that fond of him (he was kind of a jerk) but his wife (Georgette) was really nice - but I'm getting ahead of myself :-)

As for my connection with The Grinch? Early during basic training Juneau and I discovered that we were the only ones in the flight who had signed up to be Air Traffic Control Radar Repairmen which meant that we were going to be seeing a lot of each other for months to come, so we figured we might as well hang out... There's not much else to say at this point, except that he was basically a "hick" (but a lot brighter than he seemed).  And he had one hell of a temper, especially when he was drinking, which (after basic) was most of the time...

So - I guess there's no real point to this post... Just memories and observations - " fabric of life" kinds of things... And it also means that I'm getting close to wrapping up basic training...

Sigh... I don't think I've done a very good job of capturing just how "hellish" it really was. I guess it's one of those things you can't fully understand unless you've been there :-)