Harder but not Longer
From USAFA Folklore
The Class of 1979 was restricted for the 126 days leading up to their graduation by King Richards. Shortly after that, a banner was made with Richard's likeness--very accurate except that it showed a penis where his nose should be. The caption read: 126 days: he can make it harder, but he can't make it longer
[edit] Accounts
- I went through UPT with one of the criminals who created the "Harder" poster. They drew it after our class was told by Richards that the LCWB had to be erased from memory and although we were close to graduation, he could make it harder, but not longer. So John and a couple others took the General's official photo from the yearbook, projected it on a sheet and traced the photo exactly, with the exception of the nose which became a phallus (limp like the owner). They added the caption (Richards-face says: "I can make it harder, but I can't make it longer."), rolled up the poster and rigged it to deploy as we formed for noon-meal. The "Touri" on the wall had a great view and the powers-that-be jumped through their butts to get it down, but the damage was done. The entire class got called into F-1, RF showed us the poster, complained it "wasn't a very good likeness" and demanded the criminals reveal themselves or the whole class would be restricted until graduation, which meant canceling 100s Night and most of the graduation ceremonies. Notice the classic technique of punishing the group for the "misdeeds" of a few, a common practice of most idiot managers. A few days later, a couple of the criminals sacrificed themselves for the class and spent their remaining days at the Zoo on the tour pad. (At least we had M-1 rifles with metal rods shoved down the barrels to carry, not the bouncy toys imposed on cadets these years!) - (e-mail, 16 Sep 99)
- As for the "You can make it harder" picture, one rumor was that Jimmy McCoy ('81, CS-14) was outprocessing at the time and left the Zoo with a picture of the poster before they had the All Rights inspection. If anybody's ambitious enough to track him down, my guess is he's still living in the Memphis area. McCoy's other claim to fame was that he was in Jr/Sr high school with Playboy's Miss June 1978, "Gail Stanton." He had the yearbook to prove it. (23 Mar 00)
- I witnessed the unveiling of the 'You can make it harder...' poster. It was hung on the west side of the chapel wall facing fourth group. I'm checking around to see if anyone snapped a photo. If anyone would know if any photos existed it would be Jim 'Phant' O'Neill '79. He was the artist of the spirit sheet. From what I heard he and the other guilty party went to DFIT (the old cadet audio visual shop, they changed it to DFSCA or something like that years later) and just checked out an official slide of Thomas C. Richards, traced his exact likeness including Class A's and military ribbons and merely replaced the nose with another prominent part of the male anatomy. After he and his friend confessed, Jim was moved in to my squadron while he was repenting for his sins. The malicious Comm shop calculated how many tours Jim and his cohort would have to walk between then and the June week parade and made sure that they marched right from the tour pad to join up with our squadron in our dress whites. The last I heard, Jim got an A-10 out of Laughlin in UPT. - 3 Aug 00
- The poster was very well done, and unfurled from the top of Vandenberg Hall, immediately behind the spot where CS 07/08 and CS 17/18 formed up for noon meal formations (if we did an about-face, there it was!) (Un)fortunately, it came down before the formation actually fell-in, so a lot of folks were not yet in place to see it, and it was taken down almost immediately. I sent a doolie running for my camera in the squadron, and he didn't make it back in time. It was not on the chapel wall, as one comment said. - 29 Oct 03
