Army Bids Goodbye to Last Draftee Who Served in Vietnam (X-post from GD)

[pinboy3niner]

The story notes that, while Green was the last draftee in the Army who served in VN, at least one other draftee who did not serve in-country is still on active duty.

17,725 draftees were killed in Vietnam (30.4 percent of all combat deaths).



The last draftee who served in Vietnam retires

He was a kid who didn’t want to be a soldier. There was a war in Vietnam and a peace movement in America.

But then he got the government's letter. So he quit his job at a furniture store, quit thinking about college and found himself on a cold December morning in 1970 standing in front of a post office in Sumter, S.C., listening to a soldier read names off a clip board until he heard his: “Clyde Green!”

With that, the 20-year-old kid climbed on the bus with the rest of the recruits and headed to a U.S. Army base where he’d get his hair shorn to stubble, a uniform, shots, a bunk in a barracks and quick indoctrination into the military.

“I didn’t want to join the Army,” Clyde Green said last week. “The Army came and got me.”

http://www.ajc.com/news/the-last-draftee-who-645726.html


Chief Warrant Officer Clyde Green and his wife Veria, in front of their house on base. Green, one of the last men drafted into the Army, and a Vietnam veteran, retired after 40 years of service in a ceremony held at Fort McPherson
Sept. 30. (Photo: Bob Andres, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

[JohnnyLib2]

1. In some ways, he speaks for many, many of us.

"He was a kid who didn’t want to be a soldier. There was a war in Vietnam and a peace movement in America.

But then he got the government's letter."

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More and more, I realize the experience of being drafted is fading from the nation's memory.

It happened, and then each man did what he could from that point.



Thanks from posting.

[Old Troop]

2. I won't disagree about the draft, but my take is that he is a lot like many

of us. He found a home in the Army and he helped make it better.

[pinboy3niner]

3. He sounds like a real trooper

His becoming a soldier may have been involuntary, but he found a home in the Army and pursued his career successfully for four decades.

I wish him and his family the best in their retirement. I've seen some VN vets in recent years who were fine as long as they were in, but began suddenly experiencing problems when they retired. For some, that major life change seemed to trigger long-suppressed war issues. I hope that doesn't happen to CWO Green--or, if it does, that he has a strong support system to help him deal with any challenges that arise.

:patriot: