General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why do we buy into the worship of the military? [View all]Blue_true
(31,261 posts)I reached 18 years old just as a peace deal for Vietnam was announced, but there still was fighting there. One of my older brothers had fought in Vietnam as a Marine, none of us knew it then, but that would cost him his life as a relatively young man.
I remember driving to the local post office after I turned 18 to fill out a selective service card that would result in my name being in the draft. I was fully licensed to drive and my mom didn't need to come to the post office with me, but she did. I was a good student and in my red county that meant that military recruiters got my name and home address, they came to give me their spiels about their branch, Navy, Army, Air Force, my mom chased all their asses away, even threatening the persistent Army guy, who had seen my oldest brothers paratrooper photo on my parents' tv. I remember my mom being on edge after my name went in, she wanted me to go to college, she already had two sons that were drafted into the military, one Army, one Marines, she knew moms whose sons came home in a coffin, she knew that the war that did that to them was still going on, she knew that she had two other sons who were drafted but failed their physicals, she knew that she now had a healthy son who likely would pass the physical then go on to an unknown, she knew that we were dirt poor and that I could not get a deferment or run off to Canada. The letter from the selective service came back, I was at school so my mom was the first to see it in the mailbox, but she didn't open it for some reason. I opened the letter and found that I had pulled a high draft number and therefore didn't need to report, but I had to keep my draft card in case kids with my number level were needed, I kept that card for several years after the draft had ended. My mom had finally beat luck, she finally had a son who didn't get drafted, I went to college like she wanted and ultimately got an engineering degree.
Your post is disrespectful to the OP as a Mom, she has a connection to her child that you simply have no insight into.