Posted on 01/01/2014 10:27:22 AM PST by 1raider1
Today is the day the Syfy channel has it's annual Twilight Zone marathon. I just watched the 1963 episode "In Praise Of Pip", which has the Vietnam war as its background. I got to thinking of those times (I was 13 then) and the fact that I knew several guys of draft age that got MARRIED pretty much to get out of going over there because they weren't taking married men then. I can't remember anyone who thought that getting married to avoid the draft was a particularly bad idea back then. Weird huh?
glass blowers for some reason were exempt(never got that one?). along with guys who did other kind of blowing.
now the second one is an incentive for enlistment.
Sheesh, no kidding.
I am a Vietnam veteran ( volunteered)...I am also Ani-Yun-Wiya (look it up)...
I justify our actions in Vietnam because since the 1800’2 the USA has signed over 1300 treaties with native American tribes and not upheld one...We signed the SEATO Pact (treaty) in 1953 and finally upheld a treaty.
We had a reason for fighting in Vietnam...we just went about it the wrong way...As someone said earlier...We should’ve fought to end it quickly...which we could’ve done with all-out war, as WWII....
Never registered for the draft until I was 21.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
I was 25 when I registered, having went in at 17 and got out at 25.
I was in ‘no danger’ of getting drafted as I had served ALL my active obligated service on Active Duty (6 yrs were required in 1956).
However after ENLISTING in 1956 at 17, in 1959 my mother had written the CO of my ship ‘looking for me’ as the FBI had been ‘knocking on her door’ trying to arrest me for ‘avoiding the draft’ (well, NOT registering).
SO the Government has a long history of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing.
TO make it a little more ‘WTF like’, I had an FBI background check shortly after enlisting to get me clearance for a School.
So not only the Govt hadn’t a clue, the SAME AGENCY wasn’t cross referencing...
Guess with the wide spread use of computers such mistakes aren’t made anymore. (Yeah, right).
I beat you by 326 numbers. I got the good news sitting in a bunker in Pleiku, Vietnam.
I got drafted in ‘67, right when LBJ was pumping troops into Nam like crazy. I decided to just go ahead and do my two years, go to Nam and get it over with. To my pleasant surprise, after Basic at Ft. Bliss TX, I spent my tour in Germany, then got an early out to go back to school. Total active duty time — 20 months.
Agreed. Don’t expose people to risk, unless the objective is important enough to pursue, and if it is then pursue it with vigor, till you get it. No corner given. None of this “We’re going to put you in harms way, then hogtie you from fighting like you want to win, then pull out without achieving anything, then shaft our allies in country.”
Got crotch rot, foot rot, a lesion in digging holes, filling sand bags, being bored, and scared Shi#less. Liked it so much I did it twice.
I learned discipline, and how to judge people.
No, there were quite a few ways to dodge your duty back then. For example, wetting the bed every night in basic training would get you sent back home to your mommy pretty quick.
Or, you could claim you were homosexual and get out of it all together. I don't think you had to prove it, so I understand that quite a large number of draft dodgers employed that one. Also, women didn't have to worry, they were exempt from the draft.
Ended up spending 32 years in the Guard and Reserves, shot at over my own college campus, two bad knees and one bad shoulder, increasing deafness, and memories worth every pain and minute of the time.
I served under Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Clinton. Three outa five ain't bad! Glad my son is 4F for Hemophilia. Otherwise, that Kenyan Illegal would have gotten him killed by now!
I got my letter while I was on board a destroyer. Turns out the clerk in the draft board office was a goofy women I hadn’t seen since second grade. She was just as clueless back then. I didn’t stick around to reminisce.
I turned 18 in 1971 and registered for the draft. My lottery number was 30 for the next year so I rushed in January and delayed enlisted into the USAF where I would not go to BMTS until the following year. Nixon called off the draft in January 1972 after I had already held up my right hand and took the oath. It wouldn’t have mattered, they took everyone with a lottery number under 60. I may have the dates incorrect but I know I was in USAF BMT when the last draftees were taken into the Army. I stayed in the USAF for ten years and it was one of the best decisions of my life.
I bet that young Newt Gingrinch married his high school teacher to avoid the draft. Another way to beat the draft was to become a school teacher, like Bill O’Reilly did.
ping
WW2 was not fought to the finish, we left the Russians in Germany etc. If Patton had has his way it would of been fought to the finish.
At least when they yell at you in the army it’s nothing personal, just playing the game, not so much with the wife heh.
I’m ok with mandatory military service right out of highschool. I think folks should do two years. They’d learn discipline and other great skills. I do think that any overseas or operational requirements be volunteer work. I’m not for forcing someone into harm’s way against their own wishes.
Graduated HS in 1970. Draft lottery number of 71. Got a student deferment 1S. Did 1 year community college, transferred next year to 4 year school for 1 semester then went back to cc to pick up credits. That lost me my student deferment. Got my pre induction physical and was reclassified to 1A. Received a letter saying to expect draft notice shortly. Within 5 days, Nixon abolished the draft. Dodged the bullet, but have often wondered what if.
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