AT THE OCEANA, VA., Naval Air Station, I was training a young ground-crew member on how to direct an F-14 into the fuel pit. I glanced over to check wing clearance and, when I looked back, discovered that he had taxied the aircraft too far forward for the fuel hose to reach. “You’ll have to send him around again,” I informed the trainee.

“What?” he said, surprised. “They spend millions on these things and you can’t put them in reverse?”

–Contributed to “Humor In Uniform” by John G. Rutgers

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