<Begin Segment 6>

TI: Well, and so when you went to Levittown, you went to high school, but you ended up not completing high school, having to drop out.

MF: Yeah. I got mad at my math teacher, and we were required to take algebra and geometry, then intermediate algebra. Well, geometry for some reason was something that just, just didn't appeal to me, so I didn't apply myself, and so I flunked it, and I wanted to go take intermediate algebra. So I convinced the office to let me double up. I said, "Well, I need to double up," so I had to repeat the geometry. And so, being the wise guy I was, I waited a little while, then I dropped geometry. Well, when they found out about it, they took me out of intermediate algebra and I got mad and quit school.

TI: And then that's when you essentially enlisted into...

MF: Enlisted into the Air Force, yeah.

TI: So this is when you went back, and then is when you were in boot camp, things shifted for you, you said.

MF: Well, it just kind of, thinking back, it's been a long time since I wrote the book so I kind of... thinking about it, yeah, boot camp to me was kind of waking up. Because they just basically, they didn't care, you did what they told you, if you didn't do it, you were in trouble. And that was a shock because I was basically, up until then, I was able to do whatever I wanted.

TI: Oh, interesting. So it was like you were given almost like parameters, you had to kind of follow these rules, you had no choice.

MF: I had no choice. I remember, I don't know if I put it in the book or not, the first day down there, at night, they had us up, and they kept us up until way in the morning. And they had this one airman teaching us how to shave properly. And I'm thinking to myself, "This is nuts, why do I have to stay up half the night learning how to shave?" So that was something.

TI: But also when you enlisted, the military, the Air Force, they give lots of tests, they try to figure things out. And again, this is where you found out that your IQ was like 150. Did that surprise you when you got the results from that, or did you know you were smart?

MF: I don't think I paid any attention to it, really.

TI: Oh, so when they told you you had an IQ of 150, you just kind of didn't think about that?

MF: Just like telling, "Oh, it's raining out." [Laughs]

TI: Yeah, but the significance of an IQ of 150 puts you, I think you wrote in the book, ninety-five percentile.

MF: Yeah, I think it's about ninety-eight or so.

TI: Ninety-eight. And did that mean anything to you?

MF: No, not really. The thing that was more important, they give you what amounts to an IQ test, they call it the AFQT, Armed Forces Qualification Test, and that's where it basically gives you the IQ, that's where I made the 150. And then they give you an aptitude test. Well, they found out I had a very poor aptitude for administration, but I had a very good aptitude for electronics, which made me happy because I was interested in electronics. So I figured I'd get electronics school.

TI: So that's what they did, they sent you to electronics school.

MF: Yeah, at Keesler.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2016 Densho. All Rights Reserved.