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I. G.
About the Author:
Right after high school in Detroit, I was drafted into the Army the year they had the biggest call up for the Vietnam War. During basic and AIT training, there was little doubt ...ver maisAbout the Author:
Right after high school in Detroit, I was drafted into the Army the year they had the biggest call up for the Vietnam War. During basic and AIT training, there was little doubt we were all going to be involved in the conflict in Southeast Asia. The unit I was in at Fort Hood Texas was due to leave for Vietnam in the spring of 1968. There were four battalions of us that had trained together and were to be deployed together. In early April, two of the battalions left for Vietnam while two of us were held back at the post. Dr. King was killed on April 4,1968 as we were still waiting for our orders. Scuttlebutt was going around that we were going to be deployed early April 6, and it might not be Vietnam. It wasnt until we were flying in the C-130 that we found out we were going to Chicago in full battle gear locked and loaded and ready for combat. After Dr. Kings killing, over one hundred cities throughout America had erupted into violence with Chicago and Washington DC being among the worst. While the other units were trained with finding their way through the jungles of Vietnam on search and destroy missions, we were going through the streets of South Side Chicago on our own combat mission to flush out the enemy.
Here I was, a kid from Detroit, who had relatives living on the South Side with an M-16 in hand being told to do what it took to stop the rebelling, shooting, and looting. It was almost unreal as I thought about only a couple years before being in high school with either a job at Chrysler Motors waiting for me or a chance to go to college, but instead I receive Greetings from Uncle Sam. The last thing on my mind was being in the military at the time of what I called two wars one here and one over there.ver menos