My Vietnam War - Part 1
After I graduated from college in 1967, it was pretty clear that I would be drafted if I did not maintain my student deferment. I decided that law school would be easier than graduate school in mathematics, and I managed to get into law school. After I finished my first year, however, my draft board said no more student deferment. When I went for my draft physical, one of the doctors encouraged me to apply for an officer candidate program that would only mean a two year commitment, like the draft, if I did not get commissioned. As a result I sort of volunteered for the draft with the option of going to officer candidate school. My military career was a bipartisan effort; I was essentially drafted by Lyndon Johnson in 1968 and sent to Vietnam by Richard Nixon in 1969. I went through basic training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri during the winter of 1968-69. The majority of trainees in my basic training class were not going to Vietnam; they were in either the National Guard or the...