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Agent Orange article in NYT

Last Post 04/21/2021 08:41 PM by Bill H.. 20 Replies.

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Posts:158

04/16/2021 05:55 PM
I was given a 1A classification in my senior year of high school in 68.. I called the draft board and asked why am I 1A when still in high school. They told me no reason to reset because I would be out in a few months. Gee I said but that still puts me further up the list by then. Went to JR college for a semester but was not for me. Draft will still in effect. My buddy and I decide to inlist and choose the Navy after talking to all branches. Marines, Army, Vietnam. Airforce. Some base in the world you never heard of. Navy, clean sheets every night and three square meals a day and midnight rations. Lottery came a year later and I was 360. Oh well My best friend for the last 60 years got drafted and spend a year in Nam. On disability for PTSD and Agent Orange. Not a good time for male teenagers in America.

Posts:833

04/16/2021 08:04 PM
Mondonico...ever hit subic bay, Olongapo?

Posts:4499

04/16/2021 08:16 PM
I received the draft letter in final year of high school (as about 30% of Dutch males did back in those days) but in good family tradition got out of it. Went through the usual conscientious objector process but when summoned for the interview I told them I wasn’t so much a conscientious objector but instead I objected to the notion of having to follow commands without free will. Unprepared as they were for any line of reasoning outside the norm I was at exit within the minute. Put in my 16 months civil service (instead of lazing about in barracks for 14), still one of the best jobs I ever had and it put me in current career pathway. I did tell them during that interview that if it came to war and out of my own free will I deemed it a worthwhile enterprise I’d join them in that instance. That’s bottom line what it comes down to. There are few good wars but some are worth fighting. I did better than my dad. He slept in a tent for a week before he found the exit. He also worked in the coal mine for a day (as was family tradition back then) before he found that exit and got himself an education.

Posts:1767

04/17/2021 10:05 AM
My number was 136 but the last draft call (early December 1972, IIRR) missed me by four months. Ironically I was asked to serve on the Selective Service Board in the early 1980's. Even with an all volunteer military there were still trained boards waiting in the wings in case we ever had to reinstitute the draft. I still have the commemorative metal in my desk for having served 25 years on the board, and the certificate appointing me to that position. OC, one of the criteria to receive CO status is a moral objection to all wars, not just the ones a person feels is pointless or unwarranted. You probably knew that but that's the distinction. Also the person needs to prove that the CO status was more than just a timing coincidence to getting the draft notice.

Posts:4499

04/17/2021 10:25 AM
Dale - yes I knew that. Same criteria in NL. But it’s also the criteria they try to poke a hole in during interviews (they have set them in such a manner so as to stack the deck) and they are prepared for that, rendering odds of success low. They were unprepared for my line of reasoning outside the established box (I basically put to them alone of reasoning that made a lot more sense than their arbitrary rules plus that reasoning is bullet proof). Plus the CO process is the only one available so I leveraged it to get in the door.

Posts:158

04/21/2021 08:41 PM
Sorry, I thought I responded to this already and now see it's not on here. No about Subic Bay. But the ship I I was assigned to in spent time there after running aground the year or two before. Had sat in port for the next year+ till I got on board. First cruise to Guantánamo Bay in Cuba we had oil leaks out the wazoo. Everything had settled and the shaking from being at sea just messed with everything. I was assistant Oil king and one of our jobs was to fix all the pipes on the ship. Never got more than a few hours sleep the the first three months.