1. All things considered, yes. The draft was still in force when I turned 18, and my choices were a) be drafted and sent to Vietnam; b) get married; c) get a college deferment and hope the war would be over by the time I graduated; d) head to Canada; or e) enlist in the Navy and be on a nice safe boat 20 miles offshore. I chose the latter with the additional thought the GI Bill would pay for my education afterwards (which they did - didn't pay a dime for 6 years of college and 2 degrees). Didn't have a clue what I should do, so the recruiter told me they were paying large bonuses to become medics (I didn't think about WHY they were so short of them). So armed with my First Aid merit badge from Boy Scouts, a tidy $1500 from Uncle Sam (a goodly sum in the late '60s), and 8 weeks of training, off I went to be a corpsman, figuring at worst I'd be on a hospital ship. Ended up in sunny, scenic Da Nang
Naval Base doing helicopter medevac runs and hitting the jungle with various Marine units. Long story short, I saw horrific things at age 19 that would stay with me forever; but I also have the satisfaction of knowing a lot of guys are still around today because I was there to help them after they took some shrapnel or an AK-47 round. But the experience helped shape my life for the better; I have a very positive outlook, and enjoy life to the fullest; kind of a tribute to my friends who never made it back and will forever be frozen in time at age 20 or less.
2. This is a very difficult question. Taken in the context of the times, I would likely choose not to relive those experiences, not out of any less patriotism, but rather because the government I was representing had lied, was continuing to lie to us all that time, and would not let us win. It took me over 20 years to get up the gumption to visit The Wall in DC, because so many of my friends and comrades are there; next to the birth of my kids, was easily the most emotional experience of my life. I cried like a baby for 2 days, because many of those engraved names had real faces that I remembered. Over 58,000 promising young lives cut short, essentially for nothing. So, knowing then what I know now about the futilty of it all, I'd likely have just gone to school and gotten married. Having said that, I still think the service is an excellent way for young people to discover themselves and get some top-notch technical training. Trick is to live long enough to use it. At that time though, we all wanted to do the right thing by John Wayne, apple pie and the girl next door, and support our country. Too bad they didn't support us.
3. After my tour, did get to travel the world, usually chasing Russian ships around the Mediterranean. My favorite places were Australia, New Zealand, the Black Sea, Barcelona, Athens, and Naples.
4. I think I'd prefer not to have had to make life and death decisions in the combat zone at age 19, where people I really didn't have anything against were shooting at me because I had the wrong color shirt on. I've chased a lot of ghosts over the years, and second-guessed a lot of those decisions. I used to wonder if some of the names on the Wall were there because I made a mistake. After several visits to DC, I pretty much feel at peace that I did the best I could with the little I had to work with. It was like the names up there were telling me "It's OK, Buddy - thanks for trying." For now, that's been some solace for me. |
