I’m not offended!

[David Lockmiller]

(07-09-2019 12:55 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Personally, and perhaps unfairly, David, I already do count you as a liberal. Your place of residence and your seemingly blind devotion to the New York Times gave me my first clues. Are you old enough to have participated in the flag burnings and anti-military protests of the 1960s?

For your information, I was old enough to participate in the draft in the Viet Nam War.

Did you participate in the draft during the Viet Nam War? I don't think so. But, I think that you should have. No doubt that you and Kate were advocating for female equality at the time . . . except for the military draft.

I watched on TV with my roommate as the lottery dates for the draft that year appeared on our little TV screen. One-third of the birth date numbers were taken in the draft that year. Mine was one of those numbers to be taken in the draft.

I remember as I left in the car to take the bus to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri for basic training, my mother said to me: "I love you."

I did not know what would happen to me after basic training and so I paid special attention to the combat training exercises throughout my time at Fort Leonard Wood.

Here's a funny story that will bring lots of laughs for you and Kate:

We had a drill in basic training for the company on how to attack an enemy sentry at night (by the way, the top drill instructor for our company had as his principal job in Viet Nam, the training of new military units in night ambushes of the Viet Cong).

After the initial training demonstration, we were paired in simulated exercises in steps of 1-2-3 for three repetitions. I played my part well as the enemy. But when my teammate as the enemy did his part, he fell to the ground in the first two repetitions on the count of "two.'

So, on the third repetition of this combat training exercise, I took him to the ground when step number 2 was called out. His tongue flew out; he knew immediately what it was like to have his throat cut in the middle of the night.

I was "lucky" because of my educational background in accounting at the University of Illinois. Unfortunately, for many of the black draftees from St. Louis, their Advanced Individual Training (AIT) was in combat training and then on to Viet Nam and real war. My AIT was in accounting at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, Indiana. And, I served my time as an accountant on Okinawa (far from actual combat). I did receive combat pay for one month because I accompanied a "money run" to Viet Nam during the war. I was on the ground in Viet Nam for only two hours.

But, I have often thought back about what happened to those black draftees (most likely descendants of slaves before the Thirteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution) in my basic training company from the St. Louis and East St. Louis area that actually went to Viet Nam as soldiers in combat. I thought it was unfair then and I think it unfair now. [Yes, I did not complain at the time.]

And, now, when I think of President Donald Trump having been granted five medical deferments for a bone spur in his foot (as I recall) from a corrupt doctor during the Viet Nam War, "IT MAKES ME SICK."

Please do not bother responding, I do not have any interest in what either you or Kate have to say in response to this post. I do not trust either one of you to tell the truth.