My dad was in the US Air Force in 1949-50. He was assigned to a recreational unit at a large airbase in Oklahoma. His unit maintained the athletic facilities, officiated all of the intramural athletic events, and had to be the 10th man if needed for pickup basketball games. It was his dream job.

But, he was the junior man in the unit and had not seen combat so he got all of the crap jobs. One of those crap jobs that came up was they needed someone to go to every USAF base between Oklahoma City and Key West Florida to review and train the local units. It would be 6 to 12 months away from home. No one senior wanted to be gone from home again so it fell on him.

He was handed his orders, so he loaded up his kit bag and began hitchhiking to the next base.

One month later his entire unit (minus him) got deployed to Korea. And, while he was in Florida, Oklahoma had one of the worst winters in history.