Looking back over the 14 years of this blog, it stands out to me that I've really said very little about Veterans Day. I suppose the main reason for that is that I'm not a veteran, but I do care about the cause and the day. A few things this year have gotten me reminded of the day early enough to collect some thoughts.
Image found online with no credit given, but it speaks to me.
A week ago, Quizikle posted a thing over on his blog that got me thinking. We're about the same age, he might be a year or two older than me, so when we were 18 we were both contemplating the draft implications and had decided the same thing. If we were going to get drafted we would have tried to enlist in the Air Force. For me, the year I turned 18 was 1972 and while Vietnam was still going on, it seemed to be winding down. It was a year or two after the draft lottery system was introduced, and I lucked into having a number that the press said was unlikely to get drafted that year.
My parents were the first generation in both of their families to be born in
the US, and while dad had enlisted in WWII, there was no long history of
service in my family. It wasn't a topic of conversation around the dinner
table and nobody I read or saw on the TV made it seem like enlisting would be
a good thing. It really never occurred to me except as a last ditch effort to
avoid being on the front lines. Big brother and I had known people who went and didn't come back. Or came back with fewer functional body parts than when they left.
Like everyone else, this was the end of my last year of high school, meaning I had applied to a couple of colleges and was trying to set up to start that life in a few months. Because of my SAT and NMSQT scores, I was immediately accepted to the two I applied to and invited to apply to many more. While I had been an electronics hobbyist for five years, my plan wasn't to go for Electrical Engineering, but to study Nuclear Engineering. Why, according to all the ex-spurts we'd have fusion reactors going everywhere in 20 years. That would be before I was 40!
Unfortunately, my dad had an accident at work (sorting mail for the US Postal
Service when that was done manually) and re-injured an old injury from a
training accident in WWII and being on some sort of injury leave, their
ability to help fund my college fell apart. The injury eventually forced his
retirement. He passed away a decade later.
That's a bit of a long story, but only a setup for the really long story of
how that year screwed up all my well-imagined plans and took practically the
next decade to unscrew. One thing I probably never imagined I'd ever
say, back when I was 18, was that I would have gotten a lot of good out of
some of the training and work in the military - specifically the weapons side.
There could have been a lot gained.
My deepest respects to those who took the road I didn't. Far more than I could
say.
Lower-middle-class families who believed the mainstream media they were being frog-boiled in. Former Northern European immigrants who grew up in America were told they need to go fight other Northern Europeans for...what reason exactly? To make the American Eastern seaboard stock owners of the military industrial companies richer? Like the button said, war is good for business, invest your son.
ReplyDeleteNo worries, SiG. Even though I DID get drafted right out of HS back in '71, I too decided the AF was better than cannon fodder for the Army. So I went in and aced all the tests and ended up in the Electronics track... and ended up being a gopher in the Minuteman Missile program. Where I performed my best until 1976 when I got Promoted to Civilian Status.
ReplyDeleteMy brother was in Auto-track Radar and spent some time in Ubon and Udorn in the Thailand theater, but never actually went into Vietnam. My sister went into Language Institute and became a "spook", listening to radio intercepts and doing the translations. My best friend, a year younger than I, went AF Special Forces and was shot down in the Mayaguez Incident. Some of my Flight in Basic training went into Vietnam but only two failed to make it back. Some gave all...
Was The Vietnam Conflict worth it? Hell no. Was The Iraq War worth it? Jury's still out (somewhat) on that, but it doesn't look likely.
Nevertheless, my eternal gratitude for all those who DID serve. I come from a long line of Service family.
First this is all from my memories.. I was born in '53, graduated from HS in '71 and my draft lottery number was 51 (I was 19 as I recall). My plan was to let happen whatever happened...
ReplyDeleteAgain as I recall they ended the draft after drafting #28! Later I joined the Coast Guard & enjoyed it (mostly) for 21 years.
I met a guy while I was in who, while at his pre-induction physical watched the Marines drafting every 7th actual inductee. He said he left the pre-induction physical and went to the CG recruiter! He didn't mind the army drafting him but didn't want to be a Marine...
I was born in 1945 starting from first grade until graduation in 1963 every school teacher I had was a veteran, mother if a veteran, wife of a veteran couple were widowed because of the war, sister if a veteran or some way related. Dad was referred do to his job with PPG I enlisted in the USMC , 4 boys served ,one daughter ,just felt like commenting.
ReplyDeleteI was born in '41, both parents were born abroad, and became citizens before '30. I got my 2-S, finished college and the first day of dental school I was second in line to pick up my papers for the Air Force, active duty upon graduation.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't worried about losing my 2-S status though dental school and being drafted out; I had a debt to pay - to this country.
I'm one of those who, if my parents hadn't made it to this country before the late '30s, I'd have been born in an oven.
As I said, I had a debt to pay - and even though I finished my "obligation", I feel it's still not yet paid in full.
"As I said, I had a debt to pay - and even though I finished my "obligation", I feel it's still not yet paid in full."
DeleteYet another, further testimony that you're a good man, Boron. Like the vast majority of your brothers in all the branches of the service.
Thank you - and thanks for the story, too.
ReplyDeleteBorn in 46 and graduated HS in 64. Got an AA degree and decided to spend a tour in the Army like my father and grandfather had done. Three years in the Army Airborne included a year in a rather tropical non-paradise. Finished the military and moved on with life.
ReplyDeleteGraduated high school in 1971. Was part way through my first year of technical college when my draft number was pulled out of the bowl. #2. And... didn't get drafted because the draft ended. So, two years later, a AAS in electronics and then eight years in the Navy. Go figure. :-)
ReplyDeleteAs for "specifically the weapons side" training- maybe. If you're on an aircraft carrier, you have Marines for that.
Very well said, sir.
ReplyDeleteBorn '67, dad USN '60-'84. Me: enlisted on my 17th birthday, finished HS, spent my 18th birthday in medical walking the "shot gauntlet" Helloooo pincushion. 21st Birthday at sea... enlisted MM Nuke, got out '94. Wouldn't have traded the experience for almost anything.
ReplyDelete