H.D. Ingles, USAF Autumn 1961
When I had a few months left on my four-year Air Force hitch, the instructors were assigned to instructor’s barracks, which were reconditioned barracks. There was no open bay, all three-man rooms. Being permanent party, we only had two men to a room.
Every once in a while, there would be an inspection. It had been a long time since I was inspected by sergeants, I was now being inspected by second lieutenants. These lieutenants were in training, so they had an NCO, usually a tech sergeant, with them to try to keep them out of trouble.
This is two stories of inspections and two second lieutenants.
A Second Lieutenant With a Lot to Learn
I lived on the second floor, first room to the immediate left of the stairs.
We heard, “Attention!” That meant that every man in the barracks was supposed to stand at attention while some second lieutenant was in the building.
That was ridiculous. I think that everybody but the lieutenant understood that.
Anyway, I was on the second floor. My roommate and I were playing chess.
No problem. When we heard them at the top of the stairs, we would stand at attention.
The lieutenant doing the inspecting was always accompanied by a non-commissioned officer, who would usually stand in back of the lieutenant and roll his eyes. I believe his primary purpose was to make sure that the lieutenant didn’t do anything really stupid. And I’m right sure that the sergeant’s primary thought was to get this over with and go to the NCO Club for a beer.
So, the lieutenant walks into our room and we are standing at attention.
He looks around the room. He looks at us. He takes a long look at our chess board.
He leaves.
My roommate and I immediately started playing chess again.
Every room had to be inspected, so we had time.
We heard footsteps approaching our room and we went back to attention.
The man inspecting usually just walked on by on his way out. This kid didn’t. He walked into my room and looked at the chess board.
The lieutenant said to me, “You were supposed to be at attention and you were playing chess.”
It was too late and the sergeant couldn’t help the kid on this one. And I’m sure the sergeant knew what was coming. I had three stripes and had been around for a while. The lieutenant had picked a fight he couldn’t win.
I responded, “No, sir. We were at attention, sir.”
“You were playing chess.”
“No, sir. We were at attention, sir.”
He finally gave up. What was he going to say? What was he going to do? If he reported us to the captain, the captain would say something on the order of, “You memorized the chess board and you can prove it?” The captain would then tell the lieutenant to get out of his office, using a vocabulary that any sergeant would have been proud of.
I am sure the sergeant told this one at the NCO Club.
A Pretty Smart Second Lieutenant
Exactly the same situation as before, but with one exception.
This second lieutenant was probably going to grow up and become a real officer.
This lieutenant also did something unusual, on his way out he walked into my room.
But I believe he did it out of curiosity.
He looked at the chess board. He smiled and left.
