In 1970, President Nixon’s Air Force One landed at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska for a motorcade. As a military policeman working crowd control, I was expected to about-face (crowd to limo), snap off a crisp salute, and then about-face back after the President passed. I turned and held my salute, waiting for the limo to drive by. Instead, it stopped. Nixon got out and walked toward me. I knew: “He’s coming to yell about my unmilitary haircut.” He shunned my salute and walked by, going to glad-hand the crowd. Thankfully, my Commander in Chief had ignored me.
Jim DeFilippi has written more than 30 books. He served with the Air Force Security Police, now known as the Air Force Security Forces.