MagnoMurmure

Thank you for your service! I'm so humbled by draftees' service in the war, and I think it shows true character that you answered the nation's call. That's not to cast aspersions on the resistors or the COs, however; I think it was a complicated time and a complicated war, and I can't judge anyone. But you served, and thank you for it!

I'm an Army officer now in the Guard, which is a totally different organization from what it was in your era of service. The Reserve and Guard shouldered a massive burden of the deployments for the last decade, and it might've been less had there been a draft in place to supplement either the active duty force or the Guard/Reserve.

So as a draftee, do you think it would be more equitable if we reinstated conscription, albeit with common sense reforms - i.e. alternative national service (AmeriCorps, Peace Corps), guaranteed non-combat MOSs, no college/grad school exemptions, male/female draftee pool, requirement to register for the draft in exchange for federally guaranteed student loans, etc?

EDIT: Downvotes for thanking a soldier for his service and asking a question about national service? Really?

EDIT 2: ...and now upvotes. Hivemind of Reddit, thanks for being 'Murican. Thought I was pretty reasonable.

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What was your training pipeline from when you were drafted to when you deployed, and where were those schools? Did you serve elsewhere at all before being deployed to Vietnam?

I ask because I knew a guy who enlisted, went Infantry because he wanted to serve in combat in Vietnam, and then got sent to Korea for his whole enlistment.

Like where did you go to basic training, where did you go to Infantry school?