I knew when I was writing that response that there'd be some unhappiness from my current National Guard comrades, but I reiterate, during the Vietnam War, the National Guard was a relatively safe way to avoid what the rest of us went through.
Some units were called up for duty and ended up going over with us...and they did fine. Most of them stayed home, kept the home fires burning, didn't risk very much and got to wear uniforms every once in a while. (For the Bush zealots out there, F-102s were about the last aircraft we needed over there: we needed F-4/A-4/F105 drivers to replace all those brave souls that did risk all they had for us and lost).
If I seem a bit bitter, I am: the kids I knew over there were the best of us and the names on the Wall are real people with real faces to me. We could have used the help of all those healthy specimens that found all sorts of innovative ways of leaving us to our duty alone.
I don't ask for much, any more than any of us asked for anything when we got back. We didn't get parades and we didn't get honors, we just got back on hospital planes and chartered flights to airports late at night.
Don't ask me to admire the men that could have joined us but chose to stay home: we could have used their help.