A little “ring knocker” anecdote.
I'll add a few of mine. ROTC grad myself, worked in space operations so what AFA grads I met were non-pilot types.
One was a good buddy. Complete antithesis of what you consider an academy cadet...probably the sloppiest officer I knew. Wrinkled uniforms, slouched, etc. Didn't expect that of an academy grad. His fiance found another woman's earrings on his nightstand. THAT'S sloppy. Good artist, though...one of his paintings still hangs in my house.
I can't remember why he didn't go for pilot training, but he said if you DIDN'T and were medically qualified, you were called in before a group of officers and quizzed as to *why*. This was, apparently, considered a character flaw.
He described his first day in the academy...run ragged in the traditional fashion. Tired and depressed, he settled into bed as the lights were turned out. Looking up, he found the ceiling glowing...stars, planets, comets, etc. Back in those days, laundry detergents has phosphates in them that would glow in the dark. You could add some water and paint with them, and because the detergent powder was white, it was undetectable when the lights were on. He found it a real comfort after a hard day. Maybe that's why he went into space operations rather than becoming a pilot.
He wasn't typical of the other academy officers I knew. I got along fine with them, but got the impression from the NCOs that they weren't well thought-of by the enlisted folks. Had a bunch of AFA cadets come by the operations room on a tour one day. One of our majors was the on-duty engineer and was explaining some of the operations to them. One sergeant leaned over a partition and said to the major, "Hey, Frank, it's time to do ranging on Sat Seven."
Thought those cadet's necks were going to snap. The major just said, "Yeah baby, go ahead." (to the non-military among us, an enlisted man addressing an officer by their first name is a serious no-no, and an officer calling an NCO "baby" is a close second.) BTW, Frank had an Air Medal, despite not being a pilot or navigator. Apparently manned one of the monitoring stations on a mission that flew an aircraft through the residue of a Russian nuclear test.
My buddy was in one of the last classes at the academy before women were accepted. It sounded like things were pretty raw, before that. Described some skits that wouldn't be allowed, nowaways.
Each academy class picked a motto. The final all-male class picked "LCWB" for their motto. Officially, it stood for "Loyalty, Courage, Wisdom, Bravado." It actually stood for, "Last Class with B***s." IIRC, they were required to change it.
Favorite story was when a woman speaker came to talk about the equal rights amendment. The cadets were pretty rowdy, and she eventually lost her temper.
"It's a well-known fact that men your age masturbate an average of three times a night!"
One cadet stood up: "All, right, who's been holding down the mean!"
Ron "Not me" Wanttaja
