Retired brigadier general shares his keepsakes

It was 1961, and I was a freshman Air Force ROTC cadet with no rank. Four years later, I was fortunate to be named cadet commander with the rank of colonel. At the time, AFROTC Detachment 645 at Ohio State was a wing of 2,000 cadets. 

I have many memories from my four years in AFROTC. Between my junior and senior years, I spent four weeks of “summer camp” at Bunker Hill Air Force Base in Indiana. Along with the rigid discipline, eating meals at attention and reciting the quote of the day to my training officer, I had such fun duties as polishing the floor on hands and knees with Johnson’s paste wax and cleaning around the commode with a toothbrush. I laugh now, but those experiences were all part of a great program that shaped the Air Force’s newest officers. 

Back at Ohio State for my senior year, I completed my AFROTC experience with more memorable times. Our all-wool uniforms were great in the winter and miserable in the spring, especially for the May parade on the Oval. I can still feel the sweat running down my back. And then there were the wool overcoats — horse blankets, I called them. But they were ideal to ward off that Columbus winter wind. In the spring of 1965, I was named a distinguished AFROTC graduate and awarded the gold bars of a new Air Force second lieutenant at my commissioning and graduation in the Horseshoe. 

Thirty-eight years later, I took off my uniform and retired after progressing through the ranks of the active-duty Air Force, Air Force Reserves and Air National Guard and rising to brigadier general. Without my years as a Detachment 645 cadet, I can only guess where life may have led me. As it was, I had a unique and rewarding opportunity to serve this great country of ours, largely because of Ohio State.