VIETNAM VETERANS GET MEDALS FOR HEROIC ACTIONS...

[karynnj]

15. In those days, "choosing" not to go was only an option for the

more connected or the more educated people. I was in high school and college during the years when the draft was calling up the most young men. My high school served a neighborhood that was lower middle class to middle class. About half the kids went on to college. I graduated college in 1968. Of the guys who did not go to college, the draft was a fact of life. (I knew very few of them because I was in the college prep track and I was also pretty shy.)

For most of the years I was in college, there were talks that went late into the night on the morality of going to Vietnam. For many guys older than me - even as a college graduate the choices seemed stark - either comply or go to Canada - meaning in some cases maybe never seeing some of your family again. Here, there were some outs - some companies could give their employees jobs that prevented them from being drafted. (Mostly companies - like Bell Labs that had some military projects, but got deferments for all their jobs.) Also, many men became teachers in needed fields. Also, some did join the National Guard - though that usually required some connection who could pull strings.

As a woman, I never faced having to make the decision. However, I do think I saw enough to say that unless you were faced with the horrible choice many guys faced, it is both impossible to know what you would have actually done. I do know that either choice was extremely difficult.

Not to mention, this battle was in 1967. These guys were likely drafted in 1966. At that point, the antiwar movement was much smaller than it would become and it was before the incredible loses in the Tet initiative.