On Fri, 16 Sep 2011 12:22:52 -0400, "Robert Green"
wrote:



Well, I'm glad my ultra-flat feet made that decision for me.

That's a good thing. Many suffer angst about VN service.
I never was forced to make the decision, because I joined the Navy
shortly before JFK was killed, and was sworn in the day after my 17th
birthday in Jan, '64.
The reason I went in the Navy was romanticism about the sea from my
reading, the normal patriotism, and that 2 friends went in at the
same time. Without the desire to walk in the footsteps of my friends
I would have joined the Marines.
Though I disagree with Heybub's premise about joining up in current
times to blow things up, I admit I fit that bill.
In late '65 or early '66, when I was about 19, there was a call for
volunteers roster for VN Swift boat duty making the rounds on my ship.
I volunteered, and distinctly remember thinking 2 things.
1. Action! Machine guns!
Chasing Soviet subs in the Atlantic and Med was pretty boring.
2. Hazardous duty pay.
Of course they didn't take me. They don't need a boilerman on a Swift
boat. Needs of the Navy.

I didn't agree
with that war or with these wars and I'm sorry that the draft was "shelved"
because I believe if it still existed, we would have left AfRaq a long, long
time ago. With a draft, perhaps we wouldn't even have started either war. I
guess I grew up to think Americans never threw the first punch, but they
always punched back if hit first and punched hard enough to settle the
matter.


I agree about the draft. Iraq would have been impossible.
But a draft is impossible after "womens lib" without "total war."
You'd have to draft women.
Hard enough for parents let their sons be drafted.
But I've never changed my stance that Viet Nam was necessary for the
time. It wasn't managed right, and it was tragic.
Global communism was a real threat then, and the Domino Theory was
solid enough. Nobody will ever prove that fighting in VN didn't stop
the dominos.
This Arab spring is a very good example of how dominos topple.
I'll always honor those who served in VN.
No sense going into the revisionism draft-dodgers and peaceniks use to
justify their behavior during VN. They might be right.
Back to Heybub's idea of "Why We Fight," it hard to say why somebody
is in the military.
After my 4 years in the '60's I joined the reserves for another 2
years in the mid-70's. Just for the money. But I still knew my duty
My son-in-law joined the Army because it was the only job he could
find.
But as late as the Iran hostage crisis, when I was 32 or so, I wanted
to paratroop into Iran and blow things up.
My thinking matured slowly, accelerating when I began seeing my own
kids as potential cannon fodder for cowardly politicians.
Now my finger is very, very slow to itch.

--Vic