Military Intelligence

One of my favorite questions to ask an older man is "Were you drafted?"  Now while there is still a requirement for Selective Service registration, there has not been a US military draft since the 70s and unlikely to return, barring a true National emergency.

But for those who graduated from high school before the early 70s, the Draft was a big issue in their young lives.   There were many ways to deal with the draft process, and it seems like every military story I hear involves some unusual circumstances:

1.  My friend Len flunked out of college in 1968, the height of the Vietnam War.  He decided to enlist in the US Army to have a chance as to where he went.  Despite his failing college grades, he scored so high on the ASVAB that he was assigned to the Army Finance Corps in Korea and stayed out of harm's way.  He described his experience there like someone would describe senior year in college, lots of R&R.


2.  I used to work with an older man during the 1980s.  He went by the name C.P. Geisel.  I asked him what C.P. stood for, and he said he was originally Clarence.  But he was drafted in World War II and assigned to Infantry.  He disliked that so much that he put in for transfer.  When the papers arrived, the orders said "Paul Geisel".  So he decided from then on, he would be Paul and took the orders and shipped out to another posting.

3.  My father Ed after graduating from the University of Texas did not have any further deferment.  So he decided to seek acceptance to the US Navy Officer Candidate School.  He went to Aviation OCS in Pensacola, FL, and was commissioned as an officer.  During the flight training, the program was changed from a 4 years commitment to 6 years.  They gave the affected classes the option to get out and Ed took the early out.  Imagine the costs of letting all those officers go.

4.  My friend Mike had a similar story.  He attended Texas A&M during the All-Corps years.  Upon graduation he was to be commissioned an officer.  But the Army decided it didn't need so many officers and allowed him to serve a shortened term as an enlisted man, and gave him a cush posting at Fort Hood.

Not all had it so easy.  My friend Terry joined the US Navy like Len did, to avoid a harsher fate.  But he was still assigned as a Corpman and fought in the jungles of Vietnam assigned to the Marines.

And of course, my friend John, the Skipper, went straight into the Marine Corps as an officer in 1968, received 2 Purple Hearts and spent 20 months in a VA hospital recovering from his near-death wounds.

As Audie Murphy said famously, "There's no name on the bullet"

Thanks for your service!