war & myth

[pynchonoid]

I wore my US Army uniform on the streets of San
Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, San Pablo, Pinole, and
Monterey, California, Killeen, Texas, and various
hamlets, villages, towns, cities, and wide open spaces
in South Korea, and nobody ever spat on me, and until 
today I never knew anybody who had that experience,
nor do  I know how researchers like Lembcke would
answer a veteran who had this experience.  I did hear
some rather strong comments of an anti-military and
anti-war nature from strangers in my general vicinity
on one or more occasions when wearing my uniform in SF
and Berkeley and elsewhere, but since I agreed with
the sentiments, they didn't really bother me and in
those situations I usually managed to find common
ground with my critics.


--- pynchonoid <pynchonoid at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I haven't seen it yet but look forward to it.  
> 
> I was in the US Army from June 1972-June 1974, one
> of
> the final batch of draftees (first lottery winners),
> just in time to miss Vietnam when, in our final
> weeks
> of boot camp, the powers-that-be announced no more
> draftees only volunteers would be sent to die over
> there.  That was our drill sergeant's big promise: 
> master what we're trying to teach you and maybe you
> won't die in the first 15 minutes or so after you
> get
> over there. 
> 
> I had some contact with anti-war activists in the
> Army
> when I got to boot camp and afterwards when I was in
> clerk school, and spent considerable time reading
> and
> discussing whether or not I should declare as a
> conscientious objector (I didn't, but have come to
> embrace non-violence).  An anti-military and
> anti-war
> mood was pervasive among GIs everywhere I served -
> Fort Ord (Monterey, California), Camp Howze
> (Republic
> of Korea), Fort Hood (Kileen, Texas), although the
> anti-war folk were always a minority.  In boot camp,
> for example, in our training company of 125, 30 of
> us
> were draftees and all against the war (although,
> obviously, not to the point of avoiding the draft,
> or
> desertion), another platoon of 30 were a group of
> gung-ho volunteers from Hawaii who were itching to
> get
> into combat, and the rest were somewhere in-between,
> not volunteers but not particularly enthusiastic for
> the war, either, except for one ex-schoolteacher
> from
> San Diego who had dreams of war hero glory, kept
> volunteering us for extra duty, and wound up beat-up
> under a blanket one night while his bed and other
> belongings accidentally fell out of the barracks
> window. Drill Sergeant had us all standing out in
> formation at 2 in the morning for that.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --- kelber at mindspring.com wrote:
> 
> > In addition to debunking the urban myth of the
> > spat-upon vets, Sir! No Sir! does a fantastic job
> of
> > unearthing some very hidden history.
> > 
> > Laura
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > >From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid at yahoo.com>
> > >Sent: Oct 13, 2006 12:28 PM
> > >To: Pynchon-L <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> > >Subject: war & myth
> > >
> > >October 13, 2006
> > >An Interview with Jerry Lembcke
> > >The Myth of the Spat Upon Vets
> > >
> > >By STEPHEN PHILION
> > >
> > >http://www.counterpunch.org/philion10132006.html
> > >
> > >
> 
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