BE FLEXIBLE

You gotta be flexible. I had this dream about flying for the military someplace, because I didn’t have the money to go out and buy flying lessons. So the military was the way to go. And I was so pleased because when I got to Tennessee State University and I had a chance to enroll in the Air Force R.O.T.C. it meant that I could, in fact, get to fly for the Air Force. All I had to do was just finish the sophomore year which I did. I was called into the office of the colonel who was in charge of the R.O.T.C. program there. And he said,” I just called you in here because I wanted you to hear it straight from me.” And I figured he was going to give me some kind of special award. It wasn’t like that at all. What he said was, “I’m not going to recommend you for Senior R.O.T.C. The reason I’m not going to do it is because you lack the aptitude and the intelligence to be a modern jet pilot. I was crushed. You can imagine what it felt like for me. This came out of left field. What did I do wrong? I never failed any exams. I was one of the best cadets in the whole university. I mean, how could, how could this happen? It sounded like that was the end. But it couldn’t be. It couldn’t be because I wanted to fly and I was going to find some way and I had to be able to make adjustments. Whatever I had to do I was going to do.

So, I transferred universities and I ended up at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. And I knew they had R.O.T.C. and that was going to be great. Just one problem. They had R.O.T.C. alright, but they didn’t have Air Force R.O.T.C. They had Army R.O.T.C. And then somebody said, “Hey Jim, don’t worry. The Army has airplanes, too. You could become and Army Aviator.” Hey well, okay. That’s it.

So, I went down to the R.O.T.C. department when I got to Lincoln and I met the gentleman who was in charge of the program. That Air Force guy was a White guy. This Army guy was a Black guy. Anyhow I went in to meet with him and he looked at my records and he said, “Well, I’m sorry to tell you, you know, you don’t have the prerequisites to be in Army R.O.T.C. We are not just the Army R.O.T.C., we are the Army Corp of Engineers. Combat engineers at that. Our students are students that are engineer majors and at least physics or some sciences. I looked at your records. You’re a music major! Is this a joke?” “No, sir, this is not a joke.” I literally ended up kind of halfway arguing with this colonel until finally he said, “Okay, that’s it. We’re right now involved in Bridging, and this is the toughest course we have in R.O.T.C. I’m going to let you in. But you have to understand that there’s no way for you to pass it. I said, “That’s alright, sir. I appreciate it.” And I saluted and left. And as the story goes, I ended up one of the top students in that class.

I passed Bridging and ended up getting a commission in the United State Army Corps of Engineers … and, learning to fly.