My name is Anonymous and I was an E4 in the Army from 1968 to 1970. Prior to being drafted, I had dropped out of medical school, which was what prevented me from getting drafted in the first place. I was young at the time, being 24, and I especially hated being told what to do, which made adjusting to Army life that much more difficult.
For whatever reason, they did not want me in Vietnam, so my first deployment was to Frankfurt, Germany. I worked as a peace-keeping Sound Ranger; my duty was to record remote sounds to pinpoint enemy locations. While I was active, I noticed a lot of racial tensions. No black man was able to get a "clean job;" eg. all of the white men worked in the machine rooms while the black men cleaned in the mess hall.
To be frank, my service did not have much of an impact on me. I was drafted and I did my time with no complaint. What I find ironic is that people today voluntarily join the army, yet when each individual dies, there is a lot more media attention drawn to it than was back then. When I was in the Army, if I volunteered to jump into a snake pit, no one would give a damn if I got bitten. Why? Because volunteered to jump, therefore I deserved whatever was coming. Getting drafted yanked me out of my civilian life and trusted me into a new life I did not care for.
People like our current president who used wealth to flee are criminals in my eyes. I feel as though it should have been illegal to flee, regardless of your excuse. As an American citizen, you have a duty to serve your country!
Despite my strong feelings regarding the draft, I still dislike the idea of forcing high schoolers to serve. Every kid today should know that there is a bright future awaiting each and every one of them. Younger me was very hopeless; the only benefit I got from being in the army was having some degree of financial stability.