(I'm may be going out on a limb here, and as most of you know I pretty much stay away from the more controversial threads, for several reasons). I wanted to sort of respond to the several âargumentsâ on this thread with a short story.
When I joined in 1969 I was scared....scared of the Draft, scared of going to Vietnam, 19 years old, in college,.....I had dropped a stupid PoliSci class and lost my deferment. They had a lottery that year, and were drafting something like 300 of 365 by birthday...I think I was like number 20 to go something like that. I had some friends who had joined the Marines, in various capacities, and found that I could go in for 6-12 months active, and serve a total of 6 years in active Reserve.
I was a fish out of water when I hit boot camp, as I'm sure most were (looking back). There are 4 groups in a Series, 3 of which were being trained to ship off directly to Viet Nam, I was in the 4th (as mentioned above #2020). Being a "college boy" I was given the assignment of helping the others (mostly draftees) study for and pass the required written exams. My MOS was "01" and "02" (basically office and "intelligence" - map making etc.)... well, when I finished basic training and advanced training at Camp Pendleton, I was sent to 29 Palms base in the California desert....and handed a damn Machine Gun (definitely not my MOS, LOL).
Anyway, to a point of the story here....mid way through our encampment period, we were given a display of Marine Corp pilots doing Strafing runs at low altitude, showing off their skills, come close to the deck (ground)....And all of a sudden, a plane crashed into the desert, ball of fire hundreds of feet high and long, and I went running in that direction (because my close friend was camped within yards of the crash)....I passed right by a burning corpse with a parachute still attached...killed instantly....giving his life for a Training Mission! OK, this obviously shook me up quite a bit...and I was expecting a big investigation and newspaper articles about this horrific event......2 small paragraphs on something like page 10 of a local paper (smaller in San Diego paper)..... "What am I missing here?" I wondered.
Well, we lost trainees every year of 6 years...for some really foolish reasons (starting up 30 diesel landing craft in the hull of a ship without opening the hold doors, live vs. dummy ammunition being distributed, faulty grenades, a whole bunch of people lost their live for Training.
During the Korean War, we lost about 70% of the 4th Marine Division (Reserves) because of lack of ongoing training (no meetings, no Summer training, etc), and being sent to a mission they were unprepared forâ¦..so they started doing much more rigorous and active trainingâ¦.this better prepared the reserves for being called back to active duty⦠I was able to rationalize the âgood of the many is more valuable the good of the fewâ (distorted Mr. Spock Star Trek quote)⦠but seeing the kids, yes kids, die right in front of you was pretty traumaticâ¦nothing like combat, obviously, but dying in training was tough to see.
I disobeyed âordersâ and left the hold of that ship, coughing and gagging from the noxious exhaust fumesâ¦all the while hearing the sergeants ordering everyone to stay put, and several of those who âstayed putâ died that day. I disobeyed orders to load live ammo in my M-16 and get on a truck from Santa Monica to UCLA (not long after the Kent State shootings, again âconflictedâ between following orders and questioning, what I thought was âquestionableâ authority.
Iâve read most of the posts on this thread, and I see a great number of differing opinions about our Military, our Government, and our Administrationâ¦and Iâm trying, in my own pathetic way, to say that many of you are ârightâ in your loyalty to the military and the governmentâ¦and many of you are ârightâ in your thoughts about questioning authority and some decisions made by others, that affect the lives of our young men and women. I certainly donât have the answers, but I feel as patriotic as the next guy, and yet I question a lot of decisions made by those in powerâ¦.but I never question our âkidsâ in uniform, whether volunteers or draftees, because in many ways, they had few other choices.
(sorry for the long diatribe)â¦..
Hug your kidsâ¦.respect your familiesâ¦
Don
