It is interesting ... I remember Nixon ... Woodstock ... and wodnering if my brother would be drafted and of course the casualty count every night at dinner time.
excerpt:
America’s generals love to brag about their all-volunteer Army. That’s because they tend to overlook Jeffrey Mellinger. He donned his Army uniform for the first time on April 18, 1972, about the time the Nixon Administration was seeking “peace with honor” in Vietnam and The Godfather was opening on the silver screen. Nearly 37 years later, he’s still wearing Army green. Mellinger is, by all accounts, the last active-duty draftee serving in the U.S. Army.
“I’m a relic,” Mellinger concedes with a self-deprecating laugh.
But the last of the nearly 2 million men ordered to serve in the Vietnam-era military before conscription ended in 1973 still impresses 19-year-old soldiers.
“Most of them are surprised I’m still breathing, because in their minds I’m older than dirt,”
the fit 55-year-old says.
“But they’re even more surprised when they find out this dinosaur can still move around pretty darn quick.”
This is an impressive man.
This guy may have originally been a draftee, but as soon as he signed his re-enlistment papers, he became a volunteer, and has been ever since.
I was drafted in ‘66 out in ‘68. On my way off post I happened to pass the post c.o. Gave him the middle finger salute. He smiled. Guess he expected it.
My Command Sergeant Major at I Corps in Korea had glider wings from World War II. This was in 1978.