Did I ever tell you I did that for 5 years? Its how I payed my bills while I was in graduate school for geography.

I was expert on the Kelsh, the Kern PG-2 and the Wild B-10 and A-8. All analog stereo plotters. All obsolete, now.

I really had no choice about serving, they were drafting people left and right in 1966. I just didn't want to wind up in the infantry. I would go to war with three square feeds a day, a shower every morning, and a nice warm fartsack to crawl into at night. And if there was any shooting, the Captain had as good a chance of getting wasted as I did. Still, these were not my major priorities; if I had been given a choice between two years in the Marines and four in some other, more comfortable service, I would have gone with the Jarheads, even with its risk of winding up as a combat infantryman. My major desire was to get out of my military commitment as soon as legally possible, and the Naval Reserve gave me that opportunity. Refusing military service on conscientious objector grounds would have been dishonest: I wasn't one, although I have always respected those who were willing to jeopardize their futures and careers because of a sincere pacifism. The kids who went to Canada were heroes if they did so out of a genuine moral opposition to the war. The only other alternatives for me were to either stay in school (not an option) or get married and get pregnant.

Politically, my views about the war were relatively neutral. I didn't think we had a right to be interfering in another country's civil war, particularly when the side we supported was just as bloodthirsty and vicious as the Communists, and corrupt to boot. On the other hand, I actually believed in the Domino Theory: I was convinced that if we didn't win the war it was inevitable that the Reds would take over all of Asia. And from what I knew about Cuban Communism, that was something worth fighting against. It is obvious now that we were all mistaken about the Dominoes. The one thing I wasn't mistaken about was all that John Wayne crap about us fighting for freedom and righteousness. Still, I have no moral misgivings, either way, about my service. I didn't volunteer for the front lines, but at least I showed up. And I took my oath seriously. I was in the USNR just a few weeks when I heard that the Reserves had met all their recruitment quotas and were not accepting any more volunteers. I can't help it if I'm lucky.

I don't know what I would do if I had been faced with the same choices a generation of Ukrainian young men are facing today. I guess you never know until you are faced with the choice yourself. Those are the real heroes.