I Dodged the Draft!

During the Viet Nam war era the hippies, peaceniks and other radical liberals were advising young men of draft age to avoid the draft in any way possible.

Self-inflicted injuries, leaving the country for Canada and other foreign countries, and simply refusing to go, were advocated. More than one draft dodger moved to Canada, which may account for the mess it is in now.

After graduating high school I enrolled at the University of Alaska. My plan was to take a year or two getting the liberal arts out of the way before transferring to a school in the Lower 49. I hoped to become an architect designing the new generation of homes and office buildings.

The U of A was an engineering school with the major emphasis on mine engineering. The only course that remotely connected with my major interest was drafting, and that had more to do with machine design than architectural drafting, so I didn’t think the first year was all that important. I goofed off, missed classes, didn’t study much, and generally screwed up big time. At the end of the first semester I was put on academic probation.

I could take correspondence courses, or get admitted to a junior college in order to attain an acceptable GPA and attendance record. Then I could gain entrance to a mainstream school. Before I was able to do that I was drafted. When a student was dropped for any reason, including academic probation the school was required by law to notify the draft board that said student had lost his student deferment.

The last thing on my mind was the draft. I was busy getting my grades up and applying to various schools around the country.

One Friday afternoon I went to the College, Alaska post office to pick up my mail. There was a letter with greetings from Uncle Sam. I was drafted.

After the shock wore off, I discussed things with dad. We did a little judicious investigation and learned that though there was no way of getting out of the draft at this point, I could choose my branch of service. By voluntarily enlisting I could avoid spending two years slogging through the mud and jungles of Viet Nam. Monday morning I called the Navy recruiter in Anchorage and explained my situation. Before the end of the week I was on my way to Anchorage, where the Induction Center in Alaska was located.

There were still a couple of hurdles that had to be cleared. First I had to pass a physical exam, and a battery of tests to assess my educational, mechanical and other skills.

The only difficulty I had was with the physical exam. The Navy doctors could not believe that I ever had tuberculosis. My lungs were clear and clean (and that’s another story for the future). We had to contact the hospital in Fairbanks and have them forward a copy of my records to the induction center. I probably could have gotten away with not putting that information on the medical history questionnaire, but I read the fine print and did not want to get into trouble for leaving anything out.

The doctors gave me a pass and I took the assessment tests, passing with flying colors. The Navy was interested in having me enlist. I spent some time talking over various options with the recruiter. He tried hard to get me to sign on to the nuclear power field, but there was no way I was going to do that. It would mean serving aboard either a submarine or an aircraft carrier. Nuclear powered subs spend too much time too far away from dry land and you can’t swim very far from several hundred feet down.

Aircraft carriers had two strikes against them. They are usually the location of the fleet admiral and prone to a lot of spit and polish. Being the major asset of the fleet, carriers are prime targets. Fortunately for me I had high enough grades from high school and combined with my assessment tests scores I was allowed to choose the area I wanted. I chose the advanced electronics field with a specialty in missiles.

My reasoning went something like this: if I had to go into the military, I wanted to obtain the most education I could get that would have an application in civilian life. Additionally, missiles were capable of hitting targets that were over the horizon, and I figured if the target was close enough to be seen, it was too close.

I qualified for the delay entry program and I took the full 120 days available. In order to get the schools I wanted I had to enlist for six years, which was okay. The advanced electronics and missile technician schools would provide a solid basis for a civilian career if I decided to go that direction.

In addition, I was told that once out of boot camp and at my regular duty station, I could take an option on a 7th year. The deal was that after my first tour of duty at sea, I would be sent to Officer Candidate School. After graduation I would be a Lt. JG (junior grade) missile officer. At the time, I was thinking very seriously of making a career in the Navy.

On May 8, 1969 I enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve as a seaman reservist. Three months later I went on active duty. I’ve never regretted my time serving in the military. I wonder though, how those in today’s military feel about their service. I’ve talked with a few and they don’t seem to be too thrilled about our nation’s military.

That’s a shame. It is past time for you and I to make our nation’s leaders do right for our men and women in uniform. Give them the training and tools needed to defend the country, and themselves. Get rid of the social and political programming. This is the USA, not the Socialist States of America!