Military Officer - August 2007 - (Page 88)

encore Party Pressures This young couple is all nerves as they prepare to host a social gathering in the military world for the ﬁrst time. Luckily they know a trick that’ll keep their reputations in check. M y wife and I met in junior high school in Springﬁeld, Mass. We both come from hardworking, blue-collar families, so we weren’t especially accustomed to entertaining large groups of people. This would come to present a challenge for us. When I graduated high school in 1955, the military draft was still in effect. To fulﬁll my military obligation, I enlisted in the Air Force in August of that year. While I received my share of formal training on how ofﬁcers should conduct themselves on and off duty, my wife, Jean, was learning a lot about being an ofﬁcer’s wife from onthe-job training. Our ﬁrst assignment was at Warner Robins AFB, Ga., where I was assigned to the base Aircraft Maintenance Branch. Despite being new to the assignment, Jean and I soon became involved in both our civilian and military communities. In 1962, after serving in the Air Force for seven years, it was time, we agreed, that we host a get-together to bring our military and civilian friends together. I knew this would also be our ﬁrst opportunity to impress my military friends — show them just how well we could handle such a social gathering. We were both looking forward to the upcoming event, but my wife was somewhat nervous about remembering everyone’s names when it came time for introductions. Sometime during her upbringing, she was told that word association would help in these tense situations. One of the ofﬁcers attending our party, who was senior to me in the branch, had 88 MILITARY OFFICER AUGUST 2007 the last name Rose. Naturally, my wife and I both practiced associating that name with “ﬂower” so we would remember it under pressure. There were many names we had to remember that day, but we were conﬁdent that we had the Roses’ name down pat. When it was time to introduce them to everyone, my wife announced — in a very self-assured manner — “I’d like you all to meet George and Jean Flower.” Thankfully, everyone had a good laugh over our boo-boo that day. My advice to anyone who is new to entertaining in the military world: Use word association with extreme caution! MO —Dave Harrigan is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel. He and his wife, Jean, spend their time in Bullhead City, Ariz. ILLUSTRATION: ELWOOD SMITH

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Military Officer - August 2007

Military Officer - August 2007 Contents From the Editor From the President Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Chapter Activities Cover Story: No Longer in Reserve A Different Path Weird Science Charge? Pages of History Faces of MOAA Member Books Information Exchange Advertising Index MOAA Calendar MOAA Scholarship Donors Sounding Taps MOAA Member Services Encore

Military Officer - August 2007

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