the college years

I saw a bumper sticker on the back of a truck that belonged to a Vietnam Vet that said, "If you were not here, shut up!" Going to college during the 1960's and part of the 70's was unlike any other time period in the history of our country. Everyone had a feeling of hopelessness, futility, anger, and even rage.  My wife and I, while we were dating, would always stay together to at least midnight, so we could say we started the day together. The Vietnam War was going full blast and the draft was put into force. On your 18th birthday, every young man was required by law to "sign up." Then they instituted a numerical system: every draft age person was given a number.  Supposedly, the higher the number, the less like ly you were going to get that infamous letter in the mail from our local draft board, to report for a physical exam.  The other thing, supposedly, was if you were a full time college student(15.5 credit hours/semester) and your college sent a letter to your draft board, you were exempt.  Supposedly. I made the mistake of carrying over 20 credit hours one semester, which about fried me, so I only took 9 credit hours the following semester. You guessed it, within a week I was called to report for a physical and a school bus load of us young men were driven to Buffalo, N.Y. which was the induction center.  As I said before, the only thing that kept me from coming back from 'Nam in a flag draped box was my short arm gave me an exemption.  Gee, I wonder who won the contract for American flags back then-over 58,000?  And the idea that we had to go into a swamp and kill the country's citizens and destroy their home's to stop the progression of Communism is really stretching it.  Here we are, the richest, most powerful country in the world, who could obliterate any country in the world at the push of a button, sending foot solder's into a swamp-whose shoes fell apart and rifles jammed, was just nuts.  Viet Nam was a political war. Period. "Limited engagement."  In other words, we were NOT allowed to win.  Ask any Army general and he will tell you that the Viet Nam War could have been won in two weeks.  More on the college years later.