A Baby Boomer’s Times, Travels, Thoughts, and Hopes

The Vietnam War was at its height then and the draft was extensive. So, every young man had to choose a path. You could wait to be drafted; you could enlist (4 years if you chose the safer option of Airforce or the Navy); you could flee to Canada; you could claim to be a conscientious objector; or you could go to college and get a temporary deferment. When Uncle Sam got you, you would very likely go to Vietnam for a year where the chances of dying, dying for nothing, were formidable. Many young men chose college. Some went to Canada. Many guys waited to be drafted. Most got their notices around their nineteenth birthday. Muhammad Ali claimed conscientious objector status and faced a long court battle which he eventually won. However, the boxing commission stripped him of his title and refused to allow him to box while his case was under review. He wouldn’t fight overseas, so he wouldn’t be allowed to fight in America. Ali’s claim was upheld in 1971 and he was again allowed to box at age 29, having missed the years of his prime. He wasn’t the same athlete he had been, but he was smarter. By fighting smarter and with enormous courage, Muhammad Ali fought all the leading heavyweight contenders over the next several years. He began by fighting Joe Frazier, the then reigning world heavyweight champion. Ali lost by decision, a decision which could easily have gone the other way. He later won a rematch with Frazier, but Frazier had already lost the championship to George Foreman. In 1974 Ali defeated Foreman to regain the championship and his career continued after that. Ali had always been a champion for African-Americans. By the end of his career he had elevated his status with his own courage and dignity. His demeanor was not the same as it had been when he was young. He had grown tremendously though he was still loud and bold. He continued to be a man of dignity in his retirement as he coped with his boxing induced Parkinson’s disease. His is a great American success story. He was a legitimate conscientious objector to the Vietnam War. Besides the fact that the war seemed to be morally wrong, the demand for service was extremely discriminatory. This was “a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.” A young man who wanted to get out of service and could afford tuition could go to college and have at least four years of deferment, during which he could hope for an end to the war. There was also a backdoor route out for some with connections, the National Guard or the Army Reserve. The average man could not get into these organization. They were full, but someone with connections could get in (George W. Bush got in.), and these organizations were not being called to active duty. The war was troubling to everyone’s conscience. But I was not a conscientious objector, nor was I from a rich family. I enlisted to get it over with and move forward with veteran’s benefits (if I lived). As a young man, it was easy for me to have a cavalier attitude toward my own mortality. Most young men think that they are indestructible until faced with eminent danger. I never had to face such danger. Through dumb luck and standing in the wrong line at the right time, I survived without going to Vietnam, and I served an undistinguished hitch, all in the United States. I know that service in the military is life changing for many, but for me it was not. I can’t honestly say that I gained any life lessons from the military. I did learn to fire a variety of weapons—the M-14 and M-16 rifles, a 45 caliber pistol and a 45 submachinegun, a 30 mm machinegun and 50 mm machinegun with tracer rounds, and the main gun of a tank. I had never fired a weapon before, and I have not fired one since. I was a lousy shot with the rifles at first, because I expected to be. I got better when I changed my expectation. But this is a lesson I had already learned through baseball.