Our 45-member Navy Preflight Class, 28-62, were all college graduates with one exception. A Marine cadet, Chuck Geiger, had only two years of college, however because of his high IQ and his former Viet Nam combat experience, the Marine DIs conducting our military training, assigned Chuck to lead us in marching and physical fitness drills.

Chuck was an excellent leader and a great mentor for the 44 greenhorn Navy guys who stumbled around the parade ground confusing their left foot from their right.

However, Cadet Geiger had one significant problem. He had difficulty staying awake in class. Our days started early and lasted long. It was permissible that if you felt sleepy during a class to leave your seat and go stand in the back of the room. Chuck did that in every class.

One day during a military history class, Chuck had taken his place at the back of the classroom. However, on that day he discovered a door on the back wall, and by hooking his belt over the door’s knob found he could stand more comfortably partially supported.

About mid-way through that class, all classmates were suddenly startled by loud slamming and banging from the rear of the room. Chuck had dosed off and when his knees buckled, the hooked belt swung him horizontally against the door and Chuck was frantically scrambling like an upended turtle to get his feet under him once again.

We found out later the wonderful way the instructor handled that interruption. After class, he called Chuck to his desk and asked, “Cadet, why are you not getting enough sleep at night? Is your rack not comfortable enough for you?”

“Or, no sir. My rack is very comfortable, sir.”

“No, I don’t believe it is. I’d like you bring that bed up here to my fourth-floor office, so I can inspect it.”

Chuck recruited another Marine cadet from a different battalion to help him carry that bunk up to the instructor’s fourth floor office. The instructor took a quick look, decided it passed inspection and said, “Looks okay, cadet. Carry on.”

I organized a reunion of that 1962 Preflight Class, 48 years later, in 2010. I had a yearbook showing everyone’s college and by contacting their universities, was able to get 30 former classmates to attend the reunion in Pensacola. Unfortunately, I was unable to track down Chuck Geiger until after the reunion.

When I finally reached Chuck by telephone, now Colonel Charles Geiger, I gave him an update on his classmates. Three had died in the cockpits of airplanes and the class had crashed six Navy airplanes.

“Well, make that seven,” he said. “I dumped one with battle damage in Da Nang Harbor.”