General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Is there anyone on DU-3 who lived through Vietnam War Era..whose life was changed by the DraftWar? [View all]malthaussen
(17,194 posts)I was born in Feb of '56, and so technically I was required to register for the draft in Feb of '74. But it was well-known that the draft was going to be terminated in September of '74, so I decided not to register to avoid the wild chance of being drafted in one of the last groups.
Had the war still been going on, I would probably have enlisted -- I was terribly gung-ho as a teenaged brat, although not so much so as one of my brother's friends, who couldn't wait to get to Vietnam and "Kill twenty Cong a day." (I've always wondered what happened to him) Bless me, I even wanted to volunteer for the Infantry, not because I was eager for glory in combat (even then, I knew the only glory in war is surviving), but because I wanted to do my duty. **sigh**
Serving in the military during peacetime, however, was not high on my list of ambitions (ranking a little above root canal), so I was determined that since they didn't need me to fight a war for them, they weren't going to have the chance to own my young ass. Admittedly, not the most coherent reasoning, but if 18 year-olds were rational, the old men would have to get someone else to fight their wars for them.
-- Mal