Not the Same #7 The Day of Insertion

Kirk had a vague, uncertain concept of his journey's end, but he had no idea a long, incomparable day would unfold before his insertion into Air Force Basic Training.

Cue: “Time Has Come Today” https://youtu.be/hIqwzQ7g-Cc?si=RsVDpbpu8oVmCOTD

 

Prologue: As Kirk embarks on his life-changing episode, he needed to consider what had gone before in his life. In Part One Never the Same Kirk had constantly encountered incidents that changed him in small, medium, and large ways. He had always wondered if he had control over his fate or these random, intervallic events directed his fate.

As in Part One, Kirk bordered upon Solipsism Syndrome with random thoughts that he, his life and consciousness was the only real in existence and everything around him was false, there only for his personal edification. As this Episode 7 of Part Two, Not the Same, Kirk will soon discover that he must take control his fate, and that everything and everyone is not there solely as background noise that Kirk has to interact with to advance his life in a real respect. 

 

             ***

Kirk’s alarm went off with a jingle jangle. He awoke in his room like he had done thousands of times before, though this morning was different, for this was the very last time…

His adrenaline went sky high, his heart rate up through the roof. He threw his legs out of the bed, his feet down on the freezing cold floor. He silenced the alarm clock, folded it up, and stuck it in between a shirt and his jeans in his leather duffel bag. He peeked back into his bag. His shaving kit lay wide open reminding him that he needed to fill it downstairs. His tickets stuck out the other side. He dressed as fast as he could, fingers trembling, knees shaking into his usual fare: underwear, jeans, blue t-shirt, and a bleached denim shirt. He felt it really didn’t matter what he wore. Who’d care what he looked like and after he got there in Texas, he wouldn’t have a need for any of it anyway.

He tip-tapped down the creaky stairs for the last time, bag in hand. He set the bag in the middle of the walkway around the kitchen table, so…you know. Of course, his mother sat waiting at the table sipping coffee.

“How are you on your special travel day, dear?” His mother asked, slowly getting out of her chair. “Nervous and excited?”

“YES! Definitely!” Kirk excitedly said, too loudly. He paused for a moment watching his mother pour him some coffee. “I need to calm down, keep my head on straight.”

“Can I fix you anything? Toast maybe?”

“Sure, I’d like some toast, thanks.” Kirk sipped at his scalding coffee. He felt heartfelt, remorseful for his mother that morning because he realized that she was taking his departure really, really hard.

 He decided to have his last bowl of Life cereal at home along with the toast. He had set his clock way early, so he’d have plenty of time to get ready to go. Even besides this fact, his head whirled and his stomach flipped and gyrated, but he still felt strangely hungry. He sat down.

“So when do you have to get to the airport?” She asked.

He looked at the clock. It wasn’t seven yet. “Not until nine o’clock.” He thought a second and shrugged to himself. “I don’t even know when we get into San Antonio.”

“You said, we. Are other boys going with you?”

“Yeah, three guys from around the Buffalo area.”

“You know them at all?”

“No. I don’t think so. Thanks, mom.” He added as she set the toast down, well buttered with a smear of grape jelly just the way he liked.  

Looking at him sadly, “Will you be given time to write letters in your exercising class?”

“Basic Training Flight, it is called.” Kirk said, while chewing.  “I’m sure they will give us a little free time to write, but not much, I imagine. “I’ll try to write as soon as I can to let you know I’m okay and an address to write back.”

“That would be nice,” she said, head tipped down to her coffee.

Kirk gobbled his toast, remnants of the cereal, and sloshed it down with his coffee pretty much as usual.

“Can I give you anything for the trip? Something for the airplane?”

“No, I think they’ll give us a meal on the plane. I don’t know if I can eat on the plane seeing I’ve never been on one before.”

“I wondered how you would do on a plane for that long.”

“I’m sure, I’ll be fine.”

Kirk wiped his lips and stood up fast. His thoughts came back in a rush. He shaved, brushed his teeth and stowed all that he need in his shaving kit, zipping it up. He went back in the kitchen, glancing at Felix the Cat clock: nearly seven. His hands shook as he picked up his wallet and keys. He carefully inspected and repositioned the tickets in his duffle bag and zipped it up.

Usually, on the hundreds of days he worked, he’d just rush out the door with a “’bye, mom.” He took a deep breath, slowed himself down. He gave his mother a long, one-armed hug and said, “Goodbye mom. I’ll write or call when I can.”

“Love you, Kirk. Be careful. Study well.”

“Okay, I’m gone,” he said, stepping out the door for the last time. He headed to the pink van at a fast pace. Big moist snowflakes settled on his nose, shoulders, and arms. He noticed that over an inch of snow had fallen over night, though it didn’t feel all that cold.

 Sergeant Shaw reminded him to get his affairs in order, but for the entire week, he hadn’t been able to think of anything he had to do. His wheeled fleet stood as it had for the past couple months: the old green stock car in the jumbled down garage, the partially built stock car that could’ve been a neat looking Pinto race car on jack stands in his barn garage along with the hyper-Firebird, while his red motorcycle rested under a plastic sheet. His homemade trailer sat behind the barn and the old international truck with no bed on it sat on the barn floor waiting to be a race car hauler that would never come about.

 Kirk didn’t ponder all the implications of leaving his fleet there. What? Did he think he happened to be leaving for only a couple weeks’ vacation? Kirk just didn’t want to see his fleet go away and experience the effects of the end of his old life in any way with the start of a new one.  

With him leaving, Kirk didn’t ponder the fate of his trusty pink van either that had carried him about for a couple years and towed his stock car for one season. Kirk opened the van door, swung in his bag, and jumped in the well-worn plastic leather seat that crinkled under his weight. Pushing in the clutch, he turned the ignition key: r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r. It wouldn’t start. Confused, he turned the key off wondering what was wrong.

Kirk’s heart fell to his stomach and a shock went through his brain as the implications of a non-running van hit him hard. Putting his head against the hard, cold plastic of the steering wheel his troubleshooting brain engaged: Ignition problems: moisture in the distributor, a loose wire, a bad condenser, stuck ignition points. But it was just running fine! Fuel problems: with plenty of gas, most likely a frozen gas line, even though it wasn’t really cold didn’t matter, possibly a stuck float in the carburetor.

Taking a deep breath, he put his fingers on the key, gripping it but not wanting to hear it not start again. He pushed the clutch in again. He started to twist the key and stopped: he pushed the accelerator pedal all the way to the floor and released it. He turned the key: r-r-r-vroom! The van started and sat there idling just as usual. He let out the breath. Surprisingly, his brain must have been elsewhere allowing him to forget to perform the correct starting routine that must always be followed with a carbureted motor.

Kirk slapped the steering wheel knowing his mistake that he recalled he had fallen for before more than once, that is to forget to set the automatic choke by pressing the gas pedal all the way down and releasing it before starting. He scolded himself for not following the basic procedure that he had executed so, so many times in his life. He put the van in reverse, backed up, then engaged first gear to pull out of the farmyard for the last time.

 The snowflakes fell to the windshield and stuck. He flipped on the wipers that smeared the wet flakes before they froze. The defroster will take care of that soon, he thought. As he drove past the old farmhouse, he saw his mother standing silhouetted in the door backlit by the kitchen lights. Kirk waved but probably too late. He focused out front of him with a new, unfamiliar future, his fate laid out before him. Was it a yellow brick road or a road to ruin?

Driving en route to Sarah Elizabeth’s that he had driven untold times, Kirk noticed the snow rate had steadily increased. There were maybe two inches of snow on the road, but as he liked to tease an unpredictable effect with a vehicle, he forced the van to skid which it did surprisingly easy. Too easily. Today isn’t the day to mess around and get stuck in a ditch, you have a flight to catch!  And the snow, instead of veering up and blowing away from in front of the moving van, started hitting the windshield more and more because of its high moisture content. Kirk had no worry about it having driven in some hellacious snowstorms and always came out okay. Well, except for that ONE time where he messed around ending up in a ditch!

Usually on good, clear road days, the trip to Sarah’s took about twenty minutes except for that OTHER ONE time of mysterious missing time. Kirk drove a bit slower and carefully. He estimated maybe thirty minutes to Sarah’s, but he did worry that with this short trip coupled with the subsequent trip to the airport might put him really close to check in time. Just to be clear, Sarah’s house was on the way to the airport, so it’s not lost time to the final destination.

Kirk pulled in Sarah’s driveway and he saw her through the kitchen window. He left the keys in the ignition. He grabbed his bag and she let him in.

“Hiya, you!” She said, with a smile while heading into an embrace. Kirk hugged her back.

“Hello yourself,” he said, taking her in, thinking she looked rather fetching. “You look good for an airport drive.” She wore form-fitting, faded jeans and her fur-collared nylon waist-tight jacket that was what? Gold? Tan? Maybe green? Kirk’s colorblindness stumped him again, but thought whatever color it might have been looked good with her long blond hair.

“Thanks,” she said simply.

“The road is getting slippery and the snow is coming down faster. Would you rather drive the van to the airport?”

They both peered out the window at Sarah’s father’s Pinto covered in snow.

“Mmm, I’d rather take the Pinto especially driving it home on my own. “Her countenance took a sudden downturn with the statement. “I’m more used to driving it.”

“Okay. Are we ready, then?”

“Yep, let’s go.”

After quickly sweeping off the snow from the little car, they were off. In reality, the drive to the airport gets into a little heavier traffic in proximity, but overall, the drive wasn’t that much longer than the trip between Kirk and Sarah’s house. Kirk always rode uneasily with others behind the wheel even though he himself could be a maniac at times. He should have had confidence riding with Sarah because she had a very good, professional driving instructor, namely Kirk!

Anyway, they pressed on and Sarah kept a good pace on the snow-covered roads and the intersections were sanded and salted quite thoroughly. Traffic remained light at that hour past the rush. They observed and commented to each other that the snow seemed wet on the windshield almost rain.  From Sarah’s, the route to the airport was pretty much a straight shot with traffic only slightly increasing close to the airport, but still not that bad.

So nervous Kirk and cool Sarah parked the car and went into the terminal. The flight board stared them right in the face as they walked in. Kirk’s stomach fell a bit when he saw his flight, 237, had been delayed with only an hour to board.

“Huh, I wonder what’s up with that?” Kirk said, pointing. “I didn’t think the weather was all that bad. Plane problems?” He shrugged nonchalantly despite his nervousness.

“Well,” said Sarah. “It’s only delayed, it may not mean anything.”

Kirk stood there a moment longer looking at the board. He noticed a couple other scheduled flights had been canceled.   

“Let’s find that military liaison desk, see if anyone else showed yet.”

“Ahhh, Kirk. It’s right there,” said Sarah, pointing to their left.

Kirk really didn’t know what he expected, but it was a nondescript desk with a sign overhead announcing its function. A matronly but official-looking woman sat behind the desk.

“Hello, I’m Kirk Biscuit scheduled to fly out to ahhh, San Antonio this morning.”

“Yes, I have you here. One of your flight companions already checked in.”

“Oh, good. Ummm, do you know what’s up with the delay?”

“Can’t say officially, that’s up to the airline, but apparently there’s a freezing rain problem out there. From what I heard, a couple planes took off after deicing, yet a couple were canceled as you can see.”

“So, what’ll we do?”

“Just wait and see. Oh, here’s your other fellow recruit.”

Kirk thought the young guy looked familiar, but he wasn’t sure.

“Alexandrowicz,” the guy stuck his hand out that Kirk gripped. “You can call me Alex.”

“Hey, umm, Alex. I’m Kirk…Biscuit.” Kirk paused with a glance aside to Sarah. “Oh, this Sarah.”

“Nice to meet you. I guess we wait for the other two, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess. Ever fly before? I wondered about this ah, delay.”

“Sure, I’ve flown a couple times, but it is hard to say what’s happening, you know, behind the scenes?”

“Mm, mmm.”  Kirk had to wonder if he had said Alex or Alec a moment ago. He mused a name like Alex Alexandrowicz would be kind of remarkable? Or if he just used the first part of his surname as his go-to name or favorite nickname. Kirk wasn’t going to ask.

Within a couple minutes, the other two recruits checked in. Passing names and grips between them, Kirk found their names as Joe Dougherty and Ron Stanley. As their original check-in time approached, they noticed that with the delay, the departure time was postponed an hour. At the same time, they noticed a couple more departure and arrival cancellations.

Ron seemed to speak out loud what the four had considered unexpressed. “What happens if they cancel our flight out of here? Do they reschedule our basic training?” He more or less directed the question to the woman behind the counter.

She shrugged. “I wouldn’t know what they do down there in that case.” She shrugged again. “Wait and we’ll see. I will inquire higher up if we’re not sure of the procedure.”   

Kirk and Sarah sat down nearby, but he felt fidgety with the unknown flight status not to mention the unknowns hanging out there surrounding basic training. The other three guys milled about with short, quiet chats back and forth talking about basic training and such.

 Kirk gathered from what he could hear that Ron had signed up for Security Police and Joe had some kind of medical position. He didn’t catch what Alex said. Kirk might have felt like the odd man out of the group because he sat with Sarah, but he thought he owed her some personal time for the little time they still had together.

Within a couple minutes, the flight board changed and three departures came up as cancelled, one of which was their flight. All four recruits turned to the liaison, who immediately picked up the phone. They approached her desk. They couldn’t discern much from her conversation except a couple “Ah ha, mm, mmm,” and “I see.” She set the phone down. Before the guys could speak, she spoke.

“Okay. That was the airline. Apparently, there’s a problem with freezing rain icing up the planes that they can’t get rid of. Your next scheduled flight, 284, is in six hours when they forecast the ice will stop.”

“What are we supposed to do for six hours?” Alex asked, for the group.

“Hold on,” the liaison said, with a hand up. She dialed up another number and asked about the situation. “Hmm, mmm, okay.” The guys moved in closer when she hung up. “So. That was my superior. He said that you four will take the rescheduled flight putting you into San Antonio at least seven hours late.“

“Do we stay here, at the airport” Kirk asked.

“Well. He said you four have to stay together. He also said, that you,” she looked down at her desk, “Kirk Biscuit. You are oldest so you are ranking person in charge of your group and need to decide what you four will do until your flight.”

Unknowing beforehand about age being pivotal in military ranking, Kirk considered his responsibility causing his stomach to abruptly flip and fall. In charge? Me? I’ve never had to supervise anyone. He had to wonder about fate coupled with his heading into the Air Force�"was this unusual circumstance good or bad luck?

He gulped. “All right. I guess we’ll have to stick together.”

 She continued, “In the meantime, here, give me your tickets and I’ll go to the airline counter and have them changed to flight 284. Shouldn’t take long.” She collected their tickets and walked off.

Sarah gestured getting Kirk’s attention, and he stepped away from the desk to her. He shrugged as she whispered her thoughts.  “Sure, sounds good.”

“Hey guys. Sarah doesn’t live a long way away and volunteered to take the four of us to her house to wait. What do you think?”

“I guess that sounds a lot better than hanging out here in the airport for six hours, huh?” Alex proposed.

Hesitantly, the other three guys agreed. Within minutes the liaison returned with their updated tickets, basically amendments to their original tickets. Kirk asked the liaison if she’d be there later. She said no, but someone would be in her stead. All five of them headed out to the airport parking lot.  Kirk took in the eerie silence with not a single plane whining or thundering as usual out on the runways because of the weather. A mix of wet snow and rain fell, and he noticed the ice aggregating on the parked vehicles.

Kirk hadn’t given it a thought until he saw the diminutive Pinto. He glanced over to Sarah who gave him a look and a shrug. He didn’t dare to check the other guys’ expressions on the issue. Sarah unlocked the car and they opened both doors. The three guys squeezed into the back seat built for only two adults or maybe three kids. Sarah and Kirk pulled their front seats as far forward as they would go to give the guys some kind of leg room. The three guys squeezed in or shoehorned in you might say. With Alex stuck in the middle with knees up to his chin, Joe and Ron crammed in on the outsides sitting at twisted angles so they’d fit. After scraping the windshield and a little warm up, they headed off.

Kirk sure didn’t ever in his wildest imagination conceive a day entering the Air Force would start like that one. With Sarah behind the wheel, Kirk thought she handled herself under the pressure of having three complete strangers stuck in the backseat with roads that could in all likelihood be hazardous. The parking lot and access roads were definitely icy and dangerous, but once on the main streets the road crews had laid down plenty of salt and sand.

The silence seemed deafening with only the little four banger motor chugging along and the heater blasting out a stream of hot air.

Kirk smiled. “Well, we should have good traction with all of us in here.” Sarah side glanced at him not amused and the guys had nothing to say. With a top speed of about thirty miles an hour they made it to Sarah’s house. Kirk had no idea what they’d do for hours on end. Sarah was more adept at thinking on her feet definitely impressing Kirk.

“How about something hot to drink?” She offered up.

“Sure, yeah, sounds good,” came the replies probably in an effort to cut the thick hushed atmosphere.

Sarah offered coffee, tea, or hot chocolate with two taking the latter and three of them the former two. And so it went uncomfortably for a while. The guys all shared where home was and what schools they went to. Only Ron had worked before joining up and the guys seemed taken aback when Kirk told them about his work experiences and he added he had raced stock cars due to Sarah’s urging. He brushed off their surprise by just reminding them he was a few years older than them.

Little by little they warmed up to one another, seeing they began talking about the basic training the four of them headed into. Kirk got a little concerned when Ron stated that he had done some police training with local cops along with some justice reading at the library. Along the same line, Joe said his school had a program for premed training for college bound students and was allowed in so he had a step ahead in his Air Force job. Alex declared he remained an open candidate like Kirk, but he announced that he had been working on some basic training skills like military bed making, marching commands, and facing maneuvers. Suddenly, Kirk anxiously thought he was going into basic a few steps behind everyone else in the training flight and possible be in trouble from the git-go. He thereby focused on the possible new, negative aspects of his upcoming training. Apparently, Sarah sitting next to him on a loveseat gripped his arm sensing his distress.

After a while when Kirk began getting hungry, he whispered to Sarah about lunch and wondered what she thought about it. Being the thoughtful hostess to four military bound guys, she suggested pizza. Kirk asked them and of course all three hardily agreed so they ordered two pizzas of various toppings and a couple quarts of Coke. They admitted they were getting hungry because of either eating light or skipping breakfast altogether. Devouring the pizzas with gusto, they talked of future meals in the Air Force mess halls. Kirk found he learned much more from hanging out those few hours with these guys than he could’ve ever learned on his own. Before they knew it, it was time to head back to airport, albeit with plenty of time to spare.

Squeezing into the Pinto again, they commented on the weather clearing with only the few errant flakes floating by. The route seemed in better shape on the return trip and the guys agreed that they really hoped they’d get on their way this time from the airport. Kirk wasn’t sure what he felt about getting underway with a slightly sour stomach from his newfound concerns of basic training or maybe it was the pizza. Kirk suffered from more nerves than he had that morning as the seeds of doubt had been planted by the few comments of his fellow recruits. They were nearly silent on the trip to the airport deep in thought, maybe tired, or just in deep anticipation.

Heading into the airport lobby again, the five of them with Sarah and Kirk clamping hands went directly to the departure board. There they read Flight 284 showed “on-time.”  Everyone seemed relieved, but then again they knew they’d soon be on their way. They gazed over to the liaison desk, but no one was there. Kirk wondered at this point if they really had to touch bases with the liaison anyway. Surely the airline manifest would show them boarding at gate thirteen and on their way. A little concerned about the liaison, they waited until boarding had begun, but no one showed. With a joint shrug of being undecided and then joint decisiveness, they strolled over to gate 13.

Kirk felt like he was squeezing Sarah’s hand too tightly, so he released her hand which only garnered an expression of concern from her. Kirk took in her look and thought she appeared she wore a forced brave face while he thought that he probably appeared scared to death.

The four recruits stood there at the boarding counter each with a single small bag in their hands. Kirk looked the three guys over, deciding that they looked like normal young men fresh out of high school and not soon to be Air Force airmen. He decidedly felt out of place though knew they’d all conform to whatever the Air Force threw at them in just a few hours. He didn’t see many other passengers boarding as they moved closer to the counter. The three guys looked eager, apparently, to get “the show on the road,” and went ahead and boarded. Kirk stood there with a flush of emotions coursing through him from excitement, anxiousness, fright, and then looking at Sarah still holding his hand, sadness. Without a word, he pulled her into a one-arm embrace and held her there for several moments.

“Don’t forget about me,” Sarah whispered. “Love you.”

“I love you too,” Kirk replied, thinking it might have been the only time he had ever said it. “I’ll send my address as soon as I can.”

“Okay, I’ll write back as soon as I get it.” Sarah said. “Do your best in your training, I’m sure you’ll impress them.” She smiled.

He smiled back, pulled her in and planted a passionate kiss on her warm lips realizing he’d miss doing that something awful. They pulled apart. “Be careful driving home. Concentrate on your driving, okay?”

“Yep. You’d better get on board,” she said while pointing.

“Yeah, I should.” He kissed her one last time thinking he might break down. They split apart and he went to the boarding stewardess that checked his ticket. He turned and Sarah stood there, alone, by herself, with a hand held up. He gave her a quick wave, turned his back and headed down the gangway. He wiped his sleeve across his eyes and put on his brave grim grin for the stewardess who checked his seat number and pointed him back to rear of the plane.

“There’s not that many passengers tonight, so you can sit anywhere you like.”

“Oh, okay.” Kirk said, with his brain buzzing almost enough to make him dizzy. He spotted his fellow recruits in a cluster in the back, and they waved him on. He forcibly grinned trying to block his anxiousness over his very first plane trip and daunting destination. He checked his seat number, stuffed his bag in the overhead and sunk heavily into the seat. Ron was in his row while Alex and Joe were behind. Kirk let out a long, long sigh wondering how’d he take the flight never having flown before.

Kirk thought, as designated leader, supervisor, ranking man, or whatever they assigned him, he should engage the other guys, but he just couldn’t come up with a coherent line of conversation. He decided not to try.  The stewardess closed the plane’s doors which only heightened Kirk’s anxiety.

Then, the mellow-sounding captain came on the intercom. “Good afternoon, passengers. I’m your captain so and so,” Kirk didn’t bother listening nor couldn’t focus. “We’ll be flying at 35, 000 feet to San Antonio with a flight time of about five hours and a half. The stewardesses will be around shortly after attaining cruising altitude to take meal orders. Please enjoy the flight and thank you for flying American Airlines.”

Shortly, the plane started to move and Kirk tried to hide it, but he gripped his arm rests. It seemed to him, the plane lingered considerably on the verge of takeoff, but when the engines began their takeoff roar, his knuckles went white. He glanced over to his fellow fliers to see if they had espied his fright, but they were happily enthused and looking elsewhere. He hung on for dear life through the climb until they leveled off and the engines backed off their maximum thrust roar.

Kirk suddenly fostered doubts wondering if he could ever get used to flying every day, that is, by some outside chance, he’d be selected for one of the Air Force skills that have enlisted members flying. He decided on this first flight he’d rather keep his feet planted firmly on Terra Firma which became a heck of a thought seeing he headed into four years with the Air Force while likewise considering he didn’t join the US Navy because he hated the water. He relaxed enough to lessen his grip on the arm rests. It seeped into his conscious mind that he’ll be the farthest away from home ever in his life and that he had left his entire inventory of experiences, encounters, and events behind in the wake of this airplane.

Soon enough, the stewardesses came by with drinks. Ron and Joe decided on beers, but Kirk took a safe orange juice and Alex a Pepsi. After a while, the stewardess announced the movie would be The Great Waldo Pepper which might have been family suitable for an inflight movie and even for four Air Force bound recruits. Better than perhaps Airport 1975 or even Towering Inferno while flying!

The movie appeared on a screen up ahead near the ceiling and passengers, including Kirk, used ear phones with a yoke that hung under the chin. With Kirk’s nerves and stomach still lingering on edge, he thought the movie might get his mind off where he was at the moment and where he headed. The movie proved mildly enjoyable for Kirk with Robert Redford in the title role playing an over-the-top post-World War One barnstorming pilot with plenty of exciting aerial acrobatics, near misses, and down-right crashes.

Right after the movie the stewardesses began serving meals. Being in the back of the plane it took a while for the meals to get to them and so the guys had gotten hungry long since the pizzas at Sarah’s. Kirk had ordered roast beef, baked potato, and mixed vegetables. As they ate, Ron piped up, “Better enjoy your last meal before we’re trapped by the Air Force and fed only mess hall food.”

The others chuckled at this, but the realization only tweaked Kirk once again. He had to admit for his last supper, the airline meal tasted pretty good.  After the meal had been cleared away, Kirk felt tranquil and satiated, so much that he may have forgotten his destination and dozed. Suddenly, the jet’s engine pitch changed jerking him awake with the upcoming landing a frontal brain dread for several different reasons.

With the engines idled back, Kirk could tell they were descending toward San Antonio. He swallowed hard. Looking out the window, twilight had set in over Texas. In between the clouds they descended through, he could see lights on the ground and what shouldn’t have been surprising, no snow! Heading down through the clouds, the plane bucked and rattled a couple times and they were reminded to keep their seat belts on which Kirk had already tightly fastened. Within minutes the wheels touched down quite smoothly, and they coasted to the arrival gates. Kirk breathed a sigh of relief when they came to a full stop. Again, he wondered if he could get used to flying on a regular basis in performance of his Air Force duties. He still fostered doubts about that negligible possibility in his life.

Heading down the arrival gangway the four stepped into the San Antonio Airport and were immediately greeted by a sign stating that all military recruits must report to the military liaison desk. They briskly strode to the central aisle where the desk had a young Air Force sergeant residing at the post.

The sergeant smiled, “Ah, welcome to Texas recruits, I take it you four came in from Buffalo?”

          “Yes sir, that would be us.” Ron answered for the four that Kirk took as a minor dig seeing he was the designated leader.

“Okay men, there’s a bus waiting for you right outside,” he pointed to the door on his right. “Your driver is sitting there waiting for you.”

They turned to look to see a pudgy, middle-aged man stand up from the bank of chairs who gestured for them to head out the door. They followed the driver out. Kirk was instantly amazed with the warmth outside. The driver pointed to the full size, dark blue bus with reflective yellow Air Force designation. They loaded up and were on their way. The driver asked where they flew in from and Ron answered him. After the short reply, the four rode the rest of the way in silence. 

Heading toward a brightly lit gate that announced Lackland Air Force Base as The Gateway to the United States Air Force, it being Kirk’s first exposure to an Air Force installation. Two Security Policemen manned the gate and one walked aside the bus after the driver stopped. “Get your IDs out boys,” the driver said.

The policeman, a three striper, stepped onto the bus. “Let’s see some ID.” He carried a clipboard and checked his list against the IDs of the four recruits. “Okay men, welcome to Lackland Air Force Base.” He smiled big.

Kirk didn’t know how to address the sergeant so he said nothing. They continued on to see several large blocky buildings with open patio space beneath. Finally, the bus driver stopped and opened the door.

“Okay recruits, here’s your new home.” As they stepped off the bus, they saw a short but substantial sergeant wearing a smokey the bear hat, obviously a Military Technical Instructor (MTI). 

“All right you stragglers, look alive. There’s no more time to screw off.”

“It’s not our fault we’re late,” said Joe.

The TI whirled about and getting inches from Joe’s face, he shouted, “Did I ask you to speak? Did I want an excuse?”

“No,” Joe whimpered.

“Sir,” Ron whispered.

“Sir!”

“Follow me, scum of the Earth recruits,”

They walked up into the patio space under the building.

“ATTENTION!” He shouted in a commanding voice. “Toes spread on this line, heels together! Straighten up you!” He pointed to Kirk and he did so. “Chin up, chest out, stomach in.” He took a few steps down the line of four. “I’m Staff Sergeant Stone. You’re under my command now. There is no more running to your mamas for a shoulder to cry ‘cuz there is no crying in my flight. Any crying makes me sick and you’ll be gone, PRONTO!” He stepped back down the line. “You! Bag in your right hand!” Joe did so. “Set your bags down! ATTENTION! Stand up, straight! Pick up your bags, now! Set them down! You, chin up, eyes up, forward. Don’t look at me! Pick them up! Set them down.” He glared at them each in turn as he stepped down the short line. “You four coming in late are thorns in my side! You maggots made me come out here for you four sorry stragglers after dealing with the rest of your flight today. I’ll keep an eye on you four, you mess up, and I’ll be on your a*s just like that. Maybe I can get rid of you four!” Suddenly, he stopped and turned to Kirk and got face to face to him. “What’s so funny?”

Kirk didn’t realize he was smiling, maybe it was his grimace that he assumed when under pressure. “Nothing…SIR!”

“What’s your name, long hair?”

“Kirk Biscuit, sir,” Kirk meekly said, not thinking his hair was very long.

MTI Stone scoffed. “Biscuit! Biscuit? What kind of embarrassing name is that? I put gravy on a biscuit for breakfast. Maybe I’ll dump gravy over you! Would you like that, Biscuit?”

“No sir!” Kirk shouted.

“We’ll see about that! All right you dawdlers. Let’s get you stragglers with the rest of your flight.”

They strode up a couple flights of stairs and then TI Stone opened the door into a short hallway. “All right you four. Try not to awaken the others because I put them through the grinder that you four deserved. Find a bunk and sleep fast. I’ll deal with all of you tomorrow morning.” 

As Kirk turned the corner of the barracks or dorm, there were two lines of plain bunks of maybe thirty. In the low light from the hallway and outside they all appeared occupied. The four split up and not exactly to Kirk’s preference, the bunk on the left side nearest the hallway but actually next to the wall so slightly hidden remained unoccupied. Being downright tired, he didn’t care where it was, didn’t analyze his future here in his new home, so he just stripped down to his underwear and slipped under the sheet and scratchy military-issued wool blanket.

It had been a hell of day just to arrive there at basic training and as he slipped into sleep, Kirk had to wonder, what the hell was I thinking when I drove to the recruiting office to sign up and join the United States Air Force?

Well reader, you have to realize looking back through the chapters that Kirk was not the same old, young farm boy, stock car racer Kirk. He existed as someone completely different, but what will come of him under the completely different, strange and dire conditions? Will he survive to be Not The Same in yet another fashion?