Drafted
In, 1969, 21 year old construction worker, Kenneth Potter reported to the induction center, in North Dakota, after receiving a draft notice in his mailbox. His close friend had died less than two years prior, in Vietnam. This haunted the young man as he embarked on his military journey. After his last physical exam, young Kenny was sent to Washington, via train, with other boys from all over the Midwest. When he finally arrived and got off the train, he wasn’t thinking of his home, or his old life. He only had one question on his mind; he wondered if he would ever measure up. He soon realized that his construction job had helped him build up the work ethic needed for basic training.
After enduring his platoon’s final twenty-six mile forced march, Potter, was sent to a new fort in Virginia where he was trained to be Transportation Control Specialist. This job taught him how to document passengers and cargo. He, later, finished his training at an army depot in Atlanta. It wasn’t long before Ken Potter was given orders for Vietnam. He was allowed to go back home on leave before deployment for one month, but when Kenny finally made it back to North Dakota, he found out his father had become severely ill. After, what probably felt like waking up from a dream, Kenny found himself back on the train to the base in Oakland, California. From there, he was sent to the army base in Vietnam. It wasn’t until fifteen minutes prior to landing at the Tan Son Nhut Air Force Base that the reality of what was happening hit him. It wasn’t long before he was soaked in seat from the humidity of the foreign environment.
Potter was assigned courier duty at an army base in DiAn. He was dispatched to carry classified material to and from Long Bihn, DiAn, and Saigon. Usually, he had a man with him, who carried some kind of weapon, riding next to him, but there were other times when he would ride alone. Potter was also in a group that had the task of training local civilians in various military operations.
It wasn’t until Potter had one month left that he received word that he was going to be transferred to the position of field soldier, something that shook him to his core. Fortunately, he had befriended the first captain of his base and was able to explain the timeline of events that had lead him to the hell he was living in. The captain was sympathetic and, being that Potter’s father had had another heart attack, he decided to type up orders to send the young man home.
Ken Potter was extremely fortunate. He was one of the 648,500 boys who were ripped away from their livelihoods to defend America. He narrowly escaped the fate of the 58,220 who died during the course of the Vietnam War. Most of these people were once like Kenny. Many of them had been college bound before getting drafted. It was President Franklin Roosevelt who signed the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940. The Act was responsible for the induction of over 1.4 million.
The fear of getting drafted was reality for many young men, and some were willing to do anything to be seen as ‘unfit’ for service by the military. Several tactics were used to cheat the system, from making up health conditions to forging military reserve papers, and even fleeing to Canada. Others drank gallons of beet juice which made their urine turn red during the medical exams. Some even pretended to be homosexual because the military was opposed to drafting gay men. Some were afraid that they would not be asked whether they were homosexual or not at the induction center; the solution to this problem became wearing woman’s panties, instead of underwear, during the medical examination process.
The draft was a law that invaded and reshaped the lives of individuals all over America. It is a dark spot in American history that reshaped society, and the lives of those drafted, as well as those who avoided the draft. Many who were drafted, faced special unimaginable hell that was the jungles and rainforests of Vietnam. Those who avoided the draft, even legally, were seen as unpatriotic. It was considered un-American to dodge the draft. Even those who had legal deferments were seen as selfish. Today, many are still unsure of why American troops were sent into Vietnam in the first place. All we can do is what the families of the troops did; we mourn for the dead and honor those living.