by | Feb 11, 2019 | Stories
I finished high school in 1969 and immediately started college. That fall was the first draft lottery. I remember before finding out my number all of the activity on campus. Guys we’re hanging bannners out their dorm windows saying things like “Goodby...
by | Jan 24, 2019 | Stories
I came from a small town in north central Wisconsin. When I was drafted by my country I felt it was my duty to go. I went for my physical in Milwaukee. One month later I was in the Army, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Next Fort Polk, Louisiana. Next to NCO School in Fort...
by | Jan 12, 2019 | Stories
“Greetings,” the letter began. I’d gotten it in the mail in September, 1969. I’d known it was coming, but that didn’t make it any less horrifying. It felt like an advanced notice of my upcoming death. I’d graduated with a B.A. In English Lit...
by | Dec 19, 2018 | Stories
I graduated the J School in 1969 and was drafted in September. By December I was in Advanced Infantry Training. So the lottery did me no good. But I had a patron and was bought out of the infantry and sent to Ft. Sheridan Chicago 5th Army HQ for my first duty...
by | Nov 15, 2018 | Stories
When I was a junior at the University of Missouri School of Medicine (Class of ’69), I joined the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) in 1968, a year before graduation. Serving in the USPHS is basically the same as serving in the Army, Navy or Air Force, except...
by | Nov 9, 2018 | Stories
December 1, 1969 — My 21st birthday, my first legal drink as a college senior, my future determined. It was quite a night at the 71 Club Bar in Turtle River, Minnesota, 10 miles north of Bemidji State College in Bemidji, Minnesota. The evening was progressing...
