New Airman learns unlikely lessons

  • Published
  • By Airman Frank Snider
  • 4th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. (AFPN) --  The 6-inch shirt. The hospital corners on the beds. Folding your underwear.

Nearly everyone looks back at basic military training and remembers what I’m talking about. Many, however, miss the fact those things they made us do teach a lesson, especially the 6-inch shirt; one just has to realize it.

My name used to be just Frank Snider. Now I am Airman Snider. I became part of the Air Force Feb. 10.

Basic training! I was out in front of my military training instructor, often as a water monitor, so he knew my name well. Fortunately for me, the days moved quickly and time flew by.

I graduated and moved on to Fort George G. Meade, Md. for technical training.

School lasted three months, and during that entire time I was learning about the Air Force, about journalism and about what my role would be in the years to come.

Then came another graduation and another base.

During the past two months here, I’ve been reflecting on the last few months of my life. Reflecting back to that 6-inch shirt.

In basic training we all thought, “This is the stupidest thing in the world. Why are we doing this?”

However, when I arrived here, I began to understand some of the reasons the instructors were so tough on that perfectly folded 6-inch shirt. They were preparing us to work with precision.

Even though I don’t work directly with aircraft, in my job as a public affairs specialist, a bad flash or aperture adjustment on my camera or even a misplaced letter in a news release I'm typing can mean much more work for me or cause embarrassment and cost the Air Force some credibility.

Another example comes from a friend of mine who maintains survival equipment, mainly parachutes. He brought something up to me the other day that really relates.

He told me if he was sewing together a parachute and used the wrong type of thread or missed a stitch, a pilot could die.

It just goes to show that some of the strangest things that people are told to do can have a hidden lesson, just like those six-inch shirts.