I Did Not Volunteer For Vietnam But I Went Anyway.
As a draftee I ended up in Vietnam. I was not really that excited to go but I went anyway. Leaving the country was an option but I did not plan to use it. When I got my levee for Vietnam I was sent to Fort Polk, Louisiana to a place called Tiger Land. It was a base used to train troops for the war in Vietnam.
So I ended up with actually double basic training. All Polk was was just more intensive infantry training. And it was about as depressing and arduous as anything I had ever done. 4am in the morning and 6 miles running in combat boots before breakfast. Then one kind of training or another.
So you knew where you were going uncertain of your fate. Knowing the casualty rate in Vietnam and how many were killed or wounded each week you understood what kind of year you might expect.
In the end I lucked out ending up a mail clerk and company clerk in a combat unit. And I survived the year when others did not.
Even in the rear you never felt safe because I spent my time on brigade level fire bases that could be attacked. And company clerks followed the troops.
Now that it is almost 50 years have passed I realize that Vietnam was the most significant and important events of my life. I met many great people much much braver than me. And I remember them well even if I do not remember all the names.
So someone like Trump just makes me puke. Going into a war zone where death is more the rule than the exception is no easy task for anyone. Trump should be sent to a place like Iraq where he can mess in his pants.
One thing about a war zone is that you go through all the emotions you will ever have with extreme intensity in that time that you will go through your entire lifetime.
Winston Churchill once said, "That nothing is more exhilarating in life than to be shot at without result". Now I was not shot at with a bullet but I was shelled a few times. Nothing puckers your anus like a near miss of an artillery shell.
One of the dumbest things I ever did was jump out of a bunker with shells coming in to save our mascot dingo. I got him on the first jump. And I am not sure if I was going to continue running after him if I missed the 1st time. I was not funny then, but I laugh about it now.
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