They Didn’t Want To Mess With Me!

Eight days after I became eligible for the military draft, Dwight Eisenhower was sworn in as president and quickly closed down the Korean War. Because I was still liable to be conscripted – even though no war was going on – I joined the Nebraska Air National Guard, preferring to waste one weekend per month to two years sitting around in Germany, Japan, or Korea. This way, I could remain in college and, later, law school for an eight year sentence that ended in early 1961. No sooner was I discharged from the Illinois Air National Guard that year, that the powers-that-be thought it safe – in my absence – to get the war racket going again which, of course, involved getting the Vietnam War into high-gear. I sometimes wonder whether my continued membership in the weekend-warrior racket might have intimidated the establishment into not getting any more wars going. We’ll never know. Perhaps I should get one of the bumper-stickers to which Laurence Vance referred!