There really isn't much of a plot, being somewhat episodic, although to some extent the story is structured by the interaction between Will and Sergeant King, who plays the Malvolio or Inspector Dreyfus in this little comedy. And always friendly, even to Yankees, who, he is surprised to find out, actually make up a considerable portion of the Air Force he, never one to insist on people's faults, is very careful not to let on that he's figured out that they are Yankees. When, as inevitably happens, the other person blows up over it, he just takes it as a peculiarity of people - some people just don't have any sense sometimes - and goes along with it. In an Air Force in which commanders regularly talk sarcastically to recruits, he is oblivious to it all if a commander were sarcastically to tell him to take it easy since the Air Force didn't want to trouble him, he would thank them very kindly. What makes him so is partly that he just goes along with whatever, but he is also sarcasm-deaf and guilelessly honest: he takes everyone at face value.

No Time for Sergeants is an Invincible Innocent story, and Will Stockdale is the Innocent or Fool. Will, who wouldn't have minded riding rather than walking the twenty-seven miles to town, is not wholly thrilled at this bargain negotiated to preserve his dignity, but he goes along with it, and the backwoods Georgia boy ends up in the Air Force (which at that time was still part of the Army). Finally he negotiates a deal, in which Will is going to walk to town on his own rather than be taken back in the car like a miscreant. Summary: It turns out to be exactly the wrong time for the officials to come by and say that his son, Will Stockdale, has been drafted, and should have already reported, and will have to be taken into town the result is a funny standoff over shotgun and barbed wire, which only a lot of talking manages to get around.

And all he caught was one catfish which warnt much bigger than the worm he was using, and he got finned by that, so by the time I brought the boat back in, he was setting in the front with the back of his neck red and his jaws moving in and out, the way he gets when he is upset, not speaking to me at all. I mean he went at it pretty hard and called the fish all sorts of names-he lost one pretty nice one and hopped up in the boat and banged the pole down in the water which was about enough to scare a big-sized alligator away, much less a fish, and he spent most of the afternoon after that cussing and ranting at everything that happened. The thing was, we had gone fishing that day and Pa has wore himself out with it the way he usually did when he went fishing.

No time for sergeants mac hyman