Many moons ago, I got a call from the clinic telling me they wanted to reschedule some post-deployment appointment from 1530 to 1330. Sure, I say. Day is slow, I can do that.

I get there at 1310ish, tell them I'm early, no hurry, do the paperwork thing and take a seat. I'm literally 10 feet from the window/desk thing. Eye contact is unavoidable.

1400 passes.

1430 approaches. I stand up, ask if I should reschedule. They tell me it will be any minute now. I sit down.

1500 passes. I call boss, tell him I'm gonna outstubborn the mighty USAF. He's burn-the-fucker-to-the-ground salty. He endorses my absence.

1515 approaches. I ask if maybe my appointment was never updated. Dude (that I've been staring at for 90+ minutes) asks if I've checked in yet. Wat. He tells me it'll be a minute.

1530 passes.

1600 passes.

1615 approaches. The clinic is completely empty. Except for me. I'm still 10 feet from this guy who simply will not look at me.

1630 passes. Window slides are closing. Docs are leaving. Janitors are scurrying. Dude at desk looks up at me and annoyingly says "Sir, can I help you?" I stand up, give him my ID. He does his thing, says he's going to have to reschedule me.

"No" I say. He looks at me like I just murdered his cat. I take my ID back and just leave.

A few days later I got called in by the Shirt for no-showing a mandatory appointment, I tell him what happened and I hear nothing about that appointment or the post-deployment stuff ever again.

I don't know who won that day, but I'm pretty certain it wasn't America.