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At one time, you could stay in for 20 years as an E-5. One of my early mentors in the Air Force (wing’s senior enlisted adviser) told me the story of one of those “fast burners” who volunteered to establish a squadron snack bar. The lifer E-5 wasn’t exactly the sharpest crew chief, so the squadron figured morale might improve—along with mission capable rates—if the SSgt became the unit “snacko.”

Whatever his failings as a maintainer, the E-5 was a whiz in the snack bar business. He quickly expanded from candy bars and soda, adding sandwiches, fries and other hot food at the little eatery in the corner of a hangar. Eventually, the operation included a small buffet and even hot soup.

Since profits were supposed to benefit the squadron fund, the unit commander was happy. So was the Deputy Commander for Maintenance and of course, the E-5, who planned to go into the restaurant business when he retired from the Air Force.

In fact, the only person upset by these events was the services squadron commander. His dining hall traffic plummeted, with most of the maintenance troops (and even a few pilots and WSOs) eating there. His complaints eventually forced an audit, which revealed a major discrepancy between the “sales” generated by the snack bar, and what was distributed to the squadron fund. The gap, as I recall, was somewhere around $100,000.

That triggered a full-scale investigation by the Air Force Audit Agency and the AFOSI. The wing commander was personally directed by the 9th AF/CC to “shut down the g—d—n snack bar.” It was presumed that the sluggard E-5 took the money, but the auditors could never prove that, so the SSgt was allowed the retire. A few months later, he bought a restaurant and made a down payment on a house. Along with his family, he operated the restaurant for more than 30 years, earning even more money from Air Force members.