UPON COMPLETING Air Force technical school, I had to drive from the Gulf Coast to the Pacific Northwest for my next assignment. A friend suggested I hang my blue dress uniform in the left-rear window to generate good will from the highway patrol. When I was pulled over by a Wyoming state trooper, I was sure that I was off the hook because he told me that he, too, had been in the Air Force.

But he handed me a ticket anyway. It read: “Right-rear taillight burned out/License plate not properly illuminated” and, in the remarks section, “Lint on sleeve/Name tag uneven/Collar brass tarnished.” He had once been a drill instructor.

Contributed to “Humor In Uniform” by TSgt. John M. Milano

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