Vets - what got you into the Service? What was the story? [View All]

[ThomWV]

No one just wakes up one day and finds themselves in the military, there's always a story.

I joined and sort of was drafted. 1966: Because of a screwup at the Draft Board I found out on thursday that was was to be inducted the following monday morning at 7:00 AM. I enlisted that same monday morning at about 6:30 AM. The reason I did was straight forward and reasonably cowardly. Back in those days if you were drafted you knew with some certainty that you would find yourself in Viet Nam within 6 months. However if you enlisted you were given a choice of either what job you would be trained for (provided you prequalified in testing) or where your first duty post would be. I figured I'd find myself in Viet Nam sooner or later one way or the other - nothing I could do about that - but maybe things would go better if I was able to chose what I'd be doing when I got there. So rather than be drafted for 2 years I joined for 4. Ended up doing 3 tours, on the ground, in the bushes; shit never works out the way you think it will.