The Sad Story of Hayden Warren Bar - Flight School's First
Casualty
By
Long Knife Pilot, Stephen Cover
Copyright January, 2010
All rights reserved.
I entered
flight training at Ft. Wolters
Texas
in the spring of 1966.
Happy
that I had survived the rigors of basic training, I
was looking forward to a more leasurly phase of training.....
Boy,
was I in for a surprise!!!! The first month of training
is only ground school. They don't let you near an aircraft.
The
reason is that you never are allowed to get much sleep.
Training
is expensive and only those individuals who can
stand up under incredible pressure are allowed to move on.
One
example is that you are instructed to sleep at a brace
(at attention....come on!!) Naturally
nobody can do that.
It
wasn't unusual for the whole platoon to be rousted out of
bed in the middle of the night and made to stand at attention outside
on the
pavement because someone had not followed orders and failed to sleep at
attention.
It
was HEAVILY ingrained into us that "we were all in
this together"..... If one was punished, we all took the punishment
with
him.
While
the TAC Officer (we were Warrant Officer Canidates and had an TAC
Officer instead of a Drill Sargent .... I longed for the
"Nice Sympathetic" Drill Sargent from basic training) was chewing us
out, someone would invariably look at him.
A
sin of the highest magnitude! "Are you in love
with me boy!!!???... Get down and give me ten." The TAC Officers were
not
allowed to force anyone to do more than ten push ups....
Naturally,
the first poor guy would dorp and start doing
push ups..... BUT!! "we are all in it together".... so the rest of the
platoon would also drop and start doing pushups.
This
of course is the opening the TAC wanted. He would go to
the next man in line and say, "You! I didn't tell you to move! Give me
ten... And again the whole platoon would drop and do ten pushups.
This
was repeated until one man would not drop with the
others. Then it was over, and we were allowed to return to bed for a
while.
The
next day when we came back from morning classes to
change uniforms, (We "broke Starch" twice a Day) there would be a note
on the
bunk of the candidate that abandoned the others to not go to class, but
to see
the Major.
When
we came back from afternoon clases, the offending
candidate would be gone, his bunk was rolled and his name on the door
of his loacker
was painted over..... It was that easy to be eliminated from training.
I
tell you this so you can understand the incredible
pressure we were under......
Have
you ever tried to spitshine boot laces??.
One
of the higest sins was "Thou Shalt Not Posses Any
Officer Insignia" ...... This was nearly to firing squad offense.
Well,
one day while we were in class, the TAC Officers were
doing their usual inspection of all our possesions.
They found a
Warrant Officer Bar in a student's dress
uniform hat.
Black clouds
formed over the barracks and the thunder could
be heard for miles!!!!!
Unfortunately,
the student in question was a fine person who
helped his fellow candidates all the time and was very high in the
scolastic
standings.
The
TAC Officers were trying to eliminate quitters and the
unqualified..... With this guy, they needed to find some way to keep
him.
Everybody has
heard the urban legend of a poor soldier
having to bury a discarded match stick.....
This
was obvoiusly their inspiration. However, this was
"Flight School".
Not
only did our candidate have to dig a regulation grave
for the bar, but he had to finance a complete funeral; Flowers, Casket,
Herse
and all!!
So,
one bright Sunday morning, the TAC Officers rousted the
entire 1st WOC Company.
Uniform
was bare heads, sun glasses and crying towels......
You "WOULD" shed tears.... The TAC officers checked for tears form
everyone....
1st WOC Company, 2nd
Platoon. (I'm the good looking one with the sun glasses)
The entire 1st WOC (Warrant
Officer Candidate) Company
The herse starts its slow
procession past the assembled company.
Good picture of the herse.
The funeral procession,
sobbing our way to the burial ground.
Here we are at the grave
site waiting for the uplifting words of the pastor.
Hayden's flowers for the
grave site.
Poor Hayden being laid to
rest.
Here the flowers are laid
and the words of comfort are about to be expressed.
21 gun salute was simulated with parts
of a bed frame because,
"We aren't stupid enough to let you have weapons."
Here I am at Hayden's Grave
stone
The inscription says:
Hayden Warren Bar, WOC Ret. The Bar
that Was Found In The Hat,
Not the Hat That Was Found In The
Bar.... Amen.
And that Aint No Sh*t !
Steve
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