From one veteran to another

"One, two, three, four, let's wake up the Air Force!"

It was 5 a.m. Blind with sleep, I peered outside my third- story window; the entire Army detachment was doing jumping- jacks in unison a stone's throw from my bunk bed. It was early March at Fort Meade, Md., and the temperature was well below freezing.

I was in tech school at the Defense Information School, which journalists, photographers, videographers and graphic designers from all services attend.

I don't mean just the American forces either; I had a Master Sgt. from Saudi Arabia in my class and my photographer friend had a guy from the Royal Bahamas Defence Force in hers.

The Air Force military training leaders hadn't made us wake up at 4:30 a.m. to workout since the frosty temps started. Presumably because they didn't want to freeze while standing outside ordering us around; it's not like they wanted to make our lives easier, heaven forbid.

The Marines and the Army seemed pretty jealous. They were constantly under our windows, waking us up. There was a lot of childish service-to-service competition running amok, and to be honest, I still encounter it today among veterans of different services.

Our dorm was directly across from the Marine dorm and we shared what was referred to as a "drill pad," but was really a basketball court. Every day after school, our training leaders would hurriedly march us to the drill pad to form up for our end-of- day briefings before the Marines could set up for theirs. Some days we got there first, some days they got there first.

Consequently, we heard a lot of each other's dirty laundry.

We knew what they were in trouble for and vice versa. We were actually in trouble for a lot of the same things, and it was interesting to see the difference in the way the respective services handled both the lecturing and the punishment.

There had been some incidents (of an adult nature) involving Air Force women and Marine men. The Air Force responded by making it illegal to "fraternize" with Marines. Our commander literally made it a code on the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and we were repeatedly briefed (with the Marines watching) that if we were caught we would be arrested and dishonorably discharged.

The Marines formed up. Their drill instructor said, "Don't knock up the Air Force. Hoorah?" Then they responded with a hoorah so deafening it shook the dorms.

The Army and the Marines still like to refer to the Air Force as "the Chair Force," and while that may have been true during the Cold War glory days, it's certainly not true now during the Global War on Terror—a fact neither Army nor Marines have caught up to. But the Air Force has always led the services in harshest punishments; Airmen get dishonorably discharged for

the same infraction a Soldier or Marine would get a letter of reprimand for.

Except for all of their (sometimes hostile) teasing, we all usually got along quite well. So much so that the males had some strange inter-service network going on. We got fresh-from- basic-training troops in every couple weeks. My first week there, I was at the bus stop when a Sailor I'd never met before said, "I hear there's seven new female Airmen inbound today."

My jaw dropped. I'd only heard about it 10 minutes prior, and I wasn't even sure of its validity. But sure enough, we got seven new females that day. Apparently the Air Force has more women than the other services, go figure.

We also got our own digs in. As soon as the temperature hit 33 degrees, Staff Sargeant Akamine woke us all up at 4:30 a.m. She hurried us out to the drill pad and instructed us to yell, "One, two, three, four, wake up the Marine Corps."

It was somewhat fun to hear all their windows slam shut to drown us out. But to be honest, I thought it would feel more vengeful than it did; it mostly felt silly. I guess that's why I joined the Air Force, though.