We stopped in Abilene on Monday night to hear Jenna sing with her new old band, Krypton 88. Reconnected with left handed drummer, Dana Gregory, from my high school days and asked Jim Via if he was nervous before going on. He laughed and said he wasn’t.
Jenna and the band sounded great but we had to leave before their set was over in order to catch the PBS show on the My Lai. That doesn’t sound like much, fun does it? I had read an intriguing review of the show in the morning paper. US soldiers under Lt. Caley’s command were interviewed and Vietnamese survivors told their side of the story.
I was so out of it in high school that I chose “Hawk” when asked to write a short essay on whether we were a Hawk or a Dove. It was my junior year and the war was raging. That summer Doug, who had already graduated and gone off to war, showed us a belt of gook’s ears that he proudly wore on the plane on the way home. End of tour senior year Rex’s dad wanted his son to go in the army before college. My mom wrote me at school that Rex had been killed, shot in the back by friendly fire. Tom, who lived down the street from my family, came back on leave and I asked him what he did over there. He said he sat in a helicopter and kicked napalm canisters out without even looking at what or who was was below.
I think Kim took this photo at a demonstration in IU’s Assembly Hall. I got arrested at another anti war demonstration (above), eventually dropped out and was reclassified 1A. I was considering my options when they decided to institute the lottery draft system. I watched them pick my ping pong ball in Kenny Macher and Dave Jolly’s apartment. I think Rich was there too. My number was in the two hundreds.
Later I worked with a guy named Paul who wept when Viet Nam came up and I’ll never forget him describing how they were so scared they shot at anything that moved and one time it turned out to be a bunch of kids. And then John the postman, who used to come see Personal Effects, got his Viet Nam photos out and shot himself in the head.
The PBS show was very well done, as good as Hurtlocker which we watched last night, better in fact because it didn’t try to wrap things up with a hokey scene with a soldier talking to his infant son.
5 Comments
I can’t remember much but I remember that night. I’m sure you’re right it was on television, but for some reason I remember hearing my number, not seeing it. So weird, a lottery. And people wonder whether life is predetermined.
i remember listening to the radio at nick’s old english tavern on kirkwood as they were calling the lottery numbers. one by one. somewhere i have a better picture of paul being arrested at an anti-war demonstration, i went to his arrraignment in court.
Paul, Thanks for the heads up about the My Lai doc. I’ve given up TV, but I was able to see it here online. It’s a powerful story of American shame. Having been a soldier, I would like to think I would act with honor and do the right thing. None of us know what we’re capable of in the time-warp of war. It’s better that we don’t start them in the first place.
It’s a great thing you did in standing up and speaking out. I am glad to learn you were in the resistance movement. When I was hanging out w/PE, we did not talk much politics, just music. I was coming to the end of my time as a Guardsman and by then I’d had enough. I just wanted to do my part for “God and Country”, just like those guys in the My Lai doc.
Since then, I have tried to follow a more spiritual and loving path, to pray for peace, and to find non-violent solutions. One event in particular has helped me bring closure to my military experience. The one event that stands out as the measure of progress since then, and the one I hold nearest my heart, is the time you played at the Main Street Armory. This is where I learned the art of war. By playing there you demilitarized the very place where I studied and practiced the use of guns, bayonets, and bombs. When I learned of this I felt as though a dreadful burden had been lifted and things were made right.
My number was 9 but they ended the draft right after I turned 18. I was prepared to go to Canada. Can’t imagine what my life would have been like…I was tear gassed downtown in 69 when I was 14 years old. I saw a cop with a custom made 5′ billy club beat a kid senseless. The kid turned out to be the son of a judge. The cop was suspended and it turned out he’d been beating people up for years, mostly blacks and hispanics.
Those were strange years to be a kid.
I had a draft lottery number in the upper teens or low 20’s and was sure to go, but for some reason they deferred me with a 1-Y and I thought YAHOO!!!,a few weeks later they requested I shuffle off to Buffalo and retake my tests, some time later I got a letter from the boys and this time they issued me a 4-F which I think means the only way the army would take me is if Viet Nam invaded the USA. I was happy to stay stateside but I always wondered why I got deferred,they never gave me a reason just a judgement.lucky