Memoirs of a Tracy Kid
This month’s column was a difficult one to write as are any stories of war. But I cannot disregard one of the biggest events of my youth, growing up in Tracy.
Our country’s involvement in the Vietnam conflict, as it was initially called, started out slowly in 1955. But in the fall of 1964, following the Gulf of Tompkin Incident, congress gave then President Johnson authority to dramatically increase the number of U.S. troops involved in the war effort and soon after the country was fully involved in the Vietnam War.
The United States had utilized the draft to conscript men into the military since World War II, but it had only been used on a limited basis during the Vietnam War up to that point. Starting at the end of 1964, the Selective Service System started to dramatically increase the number of people drafted into the military and its impact was immediately felt in small towns such as Tracy.
Young students in Tracy didn’t focus too much on news about the war until they went to high school. Then they started to overhear upper classman talk about the war in the hallways and the cafeteria.
The reality of the war really hit hard during the junior and senior years of high school when students started to focus seriously on post-high school graduation plans. For the boys who were soon to become men, there were three options after graduation: 1) You could elect to go to college and get a 4-year deferment from the draft, 2) you could elect to enlist in the service, thus giving you a choice as to in which branch of the military you served including the National Guard Reserve or, 3) you could wait to be drafted into the Army.
During your senior year when most boys had their 18th birthday, they were required to register with the Selective Service System. Those who elected to go on to college also had to request a 2-S deferment which meant they had a 4-year deferment, assuming they made progress each year and would graduate in 4 years. If someone fell behind that 4-year schedule because of poor grades, etc., they had to go to summer school to get back on the track or risk losing the deferment and immediately becoming eligible for the draft.
For those students who didn’t want to serve in the Army, many elected to join the Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard or National Guard. These choices usually came with the downside of requiring a 4-year commitment versus a 2-year commitment that came from being drafted.
But the big plus was that they probably wouldn’t serve in the infantry. Some of those who went on to college, including my college roommate, decided to join the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program while in college which allowed them to enter a branch of the military as an officer once they graduated. Another plus of ROTC was they were paid a stipend for the military training that they received during the summer break and they were eligible for scholarships depending on their college major.
All others who did not go to college or enlist, waited for a draft notice to arrive in the mail which usually happened by year-end. Some hoped for a medical deferment but most were resigned to serve in the Army. In my graduating class of 1967, less than 25% went onto college. Many of them dropped out of college after their first or second year because they were not prepared for the rigors of higher education. My two best friends from high school went on to college as I did, but both dropped out after one year. Rather than wait to be drafted into the Army, one joined the Airforce and became a mechanic based at an SAC Airforce base in North Dakota while the other joined the Navy and became a radar technician on a Navy ship operating off Vietnam.
For me, too much partying and not enough studying was a recipe for failure in college and I almost succumbed to it in my sophomore year. Fortunately for me, I found a new girlfriend who was more mature than I and who encouraged me to have study dates with her at the library. My grades dramatically improved shortly thereafter and by going to summer school after my sophomore and junior years, I was soon back on track to graduate on time within the allotted 4 years.
One big change to the Selective Service System which impacted me directly occurred during my junior year in college. On December 1st, 1969 the Selective Service held its first ever draft lottery drawing which assigned all eligible draftees a lottery number based on their birthday. That lottery number determined in which order they would be drafted. Those with the lowest draft numbers would be drafted first while those with higher draft numbers would be drafted later in the year. If the pool of eligible draftees was larger than the number of service personal required during the first year of the lottery, those with higher lottery numbers could avoid mandatory service during the initial year (1970) of the draft and they would not be eligible for draft until subsequent year’s draft pools were exhausted – an unlikely event. This was one big lottery of life where the last numbers drawn were the winning numbers rather than the first. My draft lottery number was 308, a number never reached during that initial year of the draft using the lottery system which only reached number 195 before meeting the recruitment needs for 1970.
The selective service lottery was televised on all the major television networks. Eligible draftees during that initial draft were glued to television screens across the county in homes, bars and college dorms and fraternities. Those with birthdays corresponding with high lottery numbers celebrated while those with low draft numbers spent the night commiserating amongst themselves and getting drunk. I remember some men with low draft numbers reaching out to the Australian and Canadian embassies about legal ways to emigrate to their countries once they graduated from college. I personally didn’t worry too much as I had a high draft number and the war appeared to be winding down somewhat at that time.
The Vietnam war impacted many of my classmates from the THS class of 1967. Because many of the men from my class did not go to college, they ended up serving in the military shortly after graduation. Two never came back home from Vietnam: John Erbes served as an Army radio man in Vietnam and was killed in action on Feb. 27, 1969, and Ray Cooreman served as an Army helicopter pilot and was killed in action on December 27, 1970. For our small town where everyone knows each other or is otherwise connected, their deaths had a big impact on everyone. The Vietnam war was very unpopular with most citizens as wars typically are. During 1970, college campus protests over the war were erupting across the country leading up to the May 4, 1970 Kent State protest shootings where 4 students were killed by National Guard troops. At Iowa State University, which I was attending at the time, the local police station was bombed on May 22, 1970, during a suspected student protest.
The United States’ Vietnam war effort ended in January 1973 with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords. The soldiers eventually returned home, often without a hero’s welcome. For many, their years of service and sacrifice seemed not to matter to a country that had become weary of the long war. It was many years before the county appeared to finally recognize and honor their service and sacrifices which culminated with the erection of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. in November 1982.
Today, the Vietnam veterans are proud of their service for our country. When you see a man with a Vietnam Veteran cap, please thank him for his service and realize all of them were doing their job of maintaining our freedom, just as their fathers did during World Wars I & II, the Korean War and all armed conflicts.
Next month: My first car — 1962 Oldsmobile 98
