When I was going through basic training for the Air Force I was the only one that didn’t qualify on the firing range. My flight along with our sister flight marched quite a distance to the range during the hot July Sun. I am not making excuses just a bad shot that day. Our assignment was to fire semi-automatic rifles and hit a target 100 yards away. Out of approximately 100 airmen I was the only one that didn’t qualify that day because I was two shots short of the mark.
To say the least it was embarrassing. We were marched back to our barracks by the Training Instructor of our sister flight. Of course he knew the results of each flight and in front of everyone asked, “Who is the one that failed to qualify?”
“Sir, it was me, sir!” I said. He asked where I was from and when I answered “Mississippi”, he replied, “Don’t they teach you to shoot down there?” Nothing else was said to me from anyone but I was totally embarrassed for the last two weeks of my training. I was not used to losing much less coming in last place.
