Thread by @rsnbrgr

Following on Andy's comment (below)...

1/11
In the spring of 1995 I had some Illinois Veterans Grant left and I decided to take a certain philosophy course. My military supervisor adjusted my lunch schedule.

On day 1 the prof asks everyone to introduce themselves...

https://twitter.com/csoandy/status/1268339693013348357

2/11 I'm pondering my one-minute intro when a young man unloads on the class:

"My name is {name} and I'm {age} and I'm taking this class because my degree requires it and I don't even know why I'm here 'cuz all this 'deep thought' is just a waste of my time blah blah blah"...

3/11 This jerk has the class stunned

I shift gears immediately

Mind you, I'M IN UNIFORM

It finally gets around to me

"My name is Rob and I'm 32 and I want to tell that idiot over there <pointing> that I know for a fact I DON'T KNOW SHIT AT MY AGE!"

4/11 I faced my body toward him and *I* unloaded

"When I turn 40, I'll look back on me today and say 'oh my God, I didn't know shit at 32!' And when I turn 50, I'll look back and say 'oh my God, I didn't know shit at 40!'

"I'm taking THIS class so I can figure ME out!"

5/11 Then I sat down

No applause, just more silence from the students & prof

.....

One day I'm in class, in uniform, when my "pager" goes off

Our wing command post has fired up and they sent me a code that means "use warp speed or just teleport"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pager

6/11 I rise up from my desk to announce "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, STAY TUNED TO THE NEWS, I DON'T KNOW WHEN YOU'LL SEE ME AGAIN"

I report for duty to discover it's the Oklahoma City bombing
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_…

7/11 Our "Nightingale" ambulance fleet is getting ready to fly just in case the governor requests us

I'm one of many people in a command post who makes emergency departures *painless* for aircrews

In the end the governor doesn't call on us. We park the aircraft and stand down

8/11 I return to the very next class. The prof asks me to give a few minutes to offer details. I counter: "may I also explain the role of Scott AFB's Nightingales?"

"Of course!" the prof says

I'm military so I know how to brief; a class of 15 students is easy

9/11 I provide a TL;DR on our response to the OKC bombing and then I jump into *why* the Nightingales exist:

"Contrary to what others might say at Scott AFB," I explain, "no air ambulance has a right-of-way in the skies. Air traffic controllers can deny it for ANY reason"

10/11 "Our pilots *know* this and so they're *always* nice to ATC. We don't want a patient to die because some jerk in a control tower got pissed at us"

"Remember that guy I berated on Day 1 intros? Our pilots can't be like him NOR me..."

11/11 "...and so I learned a valuable lesson this week," I tell the class

"I learned that, sure, you can be a jerk sometimes -- but you can't be a jerk when lives are on the line"

Man, I thought I'd get a smattering of applause for ending on that! But, nope 🙃

12/11
Coincidentally, I was on this military task when I took that philosophy course:
twitter.com/i/events/89429…

13/11 @threadreaderapp please unroll