Whereas fairy tales begin with "One upon a time," military stories tend to start with "Y'all aren't going to believe this." Here is the story of a Tennessee farm boy's journey from high school graduation through four years as a US Air Force security policeman. The odyssey took him to the Philippines, then to a bomber base in Texas before returning a sergeant back to Tennessee for college. A true coming of age story, the book is filled with detailed observations, humor, sadness, and the tedium common to young adults thrust into the complex and uncertain world of the early 1980s.