Since this is Veterans Day Weekend I thought I would write about my experiences in the US Army some 36 years ago. In the spring 1969 I graduated from the University of Oregon with a BS in Political since. My dad brought my draft reclassification notice to my graduation. Some graduation present! A few weeks latter I received my Greetings letter telling me I was drafted. This is the same summer Bill Clinton received his draft notice. Like Bill I explored the possibility of joining the ROTC while I started Law School. I had been admitted into the University of Oregon Law School for the fall of 1969: However, there were no draft deferments for law school. The ROTC folks could only guarantee me two years of ROTC before I would have to go into the Army and Law school was three years. So I enlisted in the army a few weeks before I was to go in as a draftee and signed up for Officer Candidate School . Because of my political beliefs there was never any thought of not going (ie going to Canada or faking a physical problem). I was a Hawk, but felt we were not fighting the war in Vietnam to win. I left for Basic Training in early September of 1969 .
Basic Training. After going through the Armed Forces Examination Center in Portland Oregon I was sent to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. Or as we liked to call it Fort Lost In the Woods. Basic was not fun for a guy who is not coordinated, short and not an outdoorsy type. I learned to fire an M-16 rifle, throw a grenade, and march and march. I still remember the night we had to crawl under barbwire while they fired live machine guns over our head. The course had mud as thick as a milk shake and it got into our rifles and down our necks and it was cold. One guy got caught in the barbwire and so they turned on these big light to get him out while the rest of us laid in the mud and all I could think about was going back to the UofO. It took a lot of effort to get the mud out of that rifle. In the last few weeks of Basic training we were given our orders for OCS. There were three possibilities. Infantry OCS at Fort Banning Georgia, Artillery OCS at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and Engineer OCS at Fort Belvoir outside of Washington DC in Virginia. We all knew that Infantry and Artillery OCS were quick trips to Vietnam and an infantry platoonin the field either as a Platoon Leader or a Forward Observer for the artillery. Engineer OCS put officers in the other branches of the army like Ordinance, MPÂ?s, and Military Intelligence. They took us into a large classroom and handed out the envelopes. My friend from Michigan who sat in front of me got infantry. Luckily my envelope said I was going to Engineer OCS in Virginia. Better yet it was close to Washington DC. (To be continued.)
