Bill Evans who served in the Air Force in the late 60's.  

NowBill is a patriotic guy who wanted to serve his country - just not in a Marine rifle platoon in Vietnam.  Upon returning from my 13 month tour with I/3/27 and H/2/1, I bumped into Bill who was stationed at Offut Air Force Base in Omaha, NE.  Bill was one of the few people who truly thanked me and all Marines for our service in Vietnam, for which I was very touched.  Bill was very interested in my experiences in Vietnam, which I was not ready at that time to talk about.  To avoid sounding boisterous or flippant, I changed the subject to his experiences in the Air Force and Bill began to tell me about his toughest day in the Air Force.  Now let me set the stage for 1967 when Bill enlisted in the Air Force.  All the reserve units, the Navy and the Air Force, had waiting lists of up to a year or more so Bill enlisted in the Air Force while in high school, knowing he would not leave for active duty for another year.  By the time Bill was in boot camp, the Tet Offensive of 1968 was raging and the Marines were taking some pretty heavy casualties.
As Bill describes this particular day, their training instructors, known as TI's, did
something unusual.  At 0900, or whenever reveille takes place in Air Force boot camp, the TI split them up into two groups and then said, "I suppose you are wondering why we are doing this.  As you know, the Marine Corps took some heavy casualties yesterday.  The Defense Department contacted us last night because the Marines need replacements ASAP.  They are going to draw replacements from the ranks of Air Force recruits, but there is a problem with how the Marine replacements will be fairly chosen so we are putting you in competition with each other today, the 1's against the 2's and the losers will depart for Marine Corps boot camp tomorrow.  Immediately the tears began to flow and that's NO joke!  Thus, began Bill's toughest day in the Air Force.  This is a true story.  Semper Fi, Billy Prieto