This week I went to my family doctor to get two injections. One was a tetanus booster so the woman giving me the shot asked me to stand up and let my arm hang loose. Usually at civilian doctors, I get shots or blood drawn sitting down. Standing with my arm loose is just what they told me to do in basic training in 1972 when they used the air injectors like the one in the picture above.
As the line moved slowly between the medics with the injector guns, the drill sergeant told us to be sure and stand still because if we flinched the air gun would rip our arm open. I never saw that happen, but we all believed it. The real story of terror was the Square Needle in The Left Nut on the 10th Training Day. That was scary. I wrote about that shortly after re-enlisting.
Forty-four years later, the needles are thinner, the technicians are older and I had no ill effects in either arm, just the memory of waiting for the air gun.
