John did not want to be drafted and face the prospect of ending up on the front lines of the Vietnam War. The thought of killing another human being repulsed him. A viablealternative seemed to be in joining the Air Force or Navy. He paid a visit to the local AirForce recruiter, who guaranteed John would never have to carry a weapon. John joinedthe Air Force in September 1969.
He knew he had made a mistake the day he arrived with a group of other enlistees for sixweeks of basic training at Lackland Air Base outside of San Antonio, Texas. It was alonely and arduous time, but somehow he survived the constant screaming of the drillinstructors, the hours of marching, the physical conditioning in the desert heat, thetraining in the use of weapons, the barracks inspections, the scrubbing of toilets andfloors, the tasteless food, and the classrooms where the soldiers were inculcated intoobedience and conformity. For the first time in his life, John was exposed to young menfrom all over the nation, each with his own particular prejudices and dialect andmannerisms.
Near the end of basic training he was given his job assignment order. He would betrained as a military policeman. He had to remain at Lackland Air Base for ten moreweeks of specialized training. The hand of irony had played a dirty trick. He had joinedthe Air Force with the idea he would not have to carry a weapon, but now he was to betrained in the art of combat and the use of deadly weapons. He passed through histraining without incident, but during this period of time there grew within John aninchoate attitude of rebelliousness.
From Lackland he was transferred to Beale AirBase near Sacramento, California, where hebegan his job of guarding B-52 bombers thatwere so huge they seemed like giganticprehistoric birds of prey. Thus began his daysand nights of walking in lonely circles on theflight line in the heat and rain, thinking,changing, growing, wondering what thepurpose of his life was.
John began thinking seriously about Vietnam for the first time. He had a gut feeling thatthe war was wrong. He began listening to the words instead of just the melodies of popular songs byBob Dylanand the many others who were protesting the war. He alsobegan to read the underground newspapers that were finding their way onto the base.These papers were filled with anti-war and anti-government stories about the atrocitiescommitted in Vietnam, theKent State shootings, the shooting of Ralph Bunch at the
Presidio, and the hysteria running rampant on college campuses around the country.
Eventually John's order to go to Southeast Asia came and he was given 30 days of leavebefore having to report to a base in Texas for a month of intensive war training. Fromthere he would be sent to a base in northern Thailand near the Cambodian border. The
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