Do Air Force kids grow up to be different?

Maybe. It depends.

But if they ever lived on a base in one of America’s more remote locations, they experienced something not all children do.

They got to identify their classmates’ fathers by the men’s uniform name tags. If the base was small and the last name in question was somewhat unusual, one could be fairly certain that the sergeant in question was the father of a kid you knew.

This would happen in the base store and a few other places.

But to the best of my knowledge, the following conversation never once happened.

“Are you Roxanne’s father?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Heh heh heh. I think she’s swell.”