In 1967, at the height of the Vietnam War, I got a summer job during college as a draftsman with the US Army Corps of Engineers--Military Design Section, in downtown Los Angeles. One day an engineer drove me out to Edwards Air Force Base, where it was 110°.
When we drove up to the first gate, we were stunned to find it wide open and unmanned--as was the second. We knew the location of the hangar we were to modify, so we drove straight to it. Inside we found a very experimental-looking fighter and a sergeant, seated at a desk and fast asleep.
Did he look like Andy Devine, Dom DeLuise or Slim Pickens?
Patton said: “No. Leave him alone. He’s the one man I’ve seen this entire morning at this base who has a good idea of what he wants to do and is busy doing it.