Military Service

Military Service

THE DRAFT
In retrospect, I now believe that the draft and the threat of being drafted was a basic ingredient of American democracy. The draft and the possibility of being drafted brought together the broad diversity of Americans who otherwise would never have met, much less lived and worked together. The draft helped shape the greatness of mid-20th century America.

Long before the movie, while stationed in Texas we were the Three Amigos-a black man from south side of Chicago, a Puerto Rican from Brooklyn and me, a white middle class Midwesterner transplanted to Mississippi. Never would we have met, much less become friends. Without the draft, the awesome diversity of Americans never meets and never gets to experience what we have in common, rather than what separates us. Today Americans are divided because we no longer get the opportunity to get to know one another. The draft, as much as I hated it, brought our country together.
ALMOST DRAFTED
A woman at church worked for the draft board. In those days, if you were drafted, you had plenty of time to enlist. One morning, she called with two life-altering bits of news. Effective that day, once your draft notice was mailed, you were drafted and my notice had come in that day. She could only hold the notice until 4 pm, so I had about 5 hours to find a solution. I joined an Army Reserve unit to avoid going to a war that I did not approve of even back then.
RESERVES
I served four years in the Reserves Then with only two years left; I enlisted to active duty with the Army Security Agency for four years. I have never decided whether that was an act of patriotism or insanity.
ACTIVE DUTY
I enlisted for one year of training in Monterey, CA. So typically, the Army sent me for training in DC. Our barracks were about where the Arlington National Cemetery Visitor Center is located today. I was then transferred Texas for more training. After one and a half years of training, the Army did not need us and we stayed in Texas. Months later, a Pentagon flash message came in. There was a “critical mission essential shortage effecting National Security” for someone with my training in Korea. I flew halfway around the world with only verbal orders and the highest priority. Arrived in Korea and they did not need me. An Army buddy threatened to call his Congressman and that is the only reason I was put to work in the job I had been trained for.
GREAT MOMENTS IN MILITARY HISTORY
Everyone is our unit had at a minimum a Top Secret clearance and most of us had many more clearances beyond that. One night there was a fire drill and after we had left the barracks, MPs brought in a drug-sniffing dog. MPs carried out an overflowing grocery paper bag of drugs. We know for a fact that the poor dog did not find all the drugs (Not mine, but good friends). Before sunrise, our security officer was shipped out of the country. We were told that the toughest security officer in the Army would be shipped in. There was tension in the following weeks as we waited for this toughest security officer.

He finally arrived, called a meeting and announced, “Real men don’t use drugs, we get rid of the homosexuals and we get rid of the drugs.” For the next few days, every straight soldier held hands, walked arm in arm, kissed, embraced, patted butts and skipped around our compound. Only Gay soldiers behaved. Walking to the mess hall with two good friends, I walked, and they held hands and skipped along, and we met a Second Lieutenant. In a priceless incident, he begged us, “You don’t have to salute me, OK, just please keep your hands off my butt, please” as he walked by us sideways. No one was discharged and the toughest security officer in the Army was never heard from again.

In Korea, our Chief and Assistant Chief were lovers. It was never an issue until we learned that Bob had been in country for a month before Greg arrived. Bob had dated a Korean girl during that month and did not want Greg to know. We all worked in a large room and we knew Greg had left the area when a loud voice would ask, “Don’t tell Greg what?” No one ever told Greg, but we never let Bob forget that we knew he had cheated on his boyfriend.