If I Die Before I Wake

<p>The year was 1968. I had already been in Vietnam for five months. I was 20 years old.</p><p></p><p>In August 1967 I was drafted out of my Anaheim CA. home and was no more aware of a Vietnam than I was aware of any domino theory that was forcing the U.S. to escalate it's draft mandate. It was the time of The Tet Offensive Apollo 8 orbiting the moon and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy; and about all my 19-year-old self could think about was getting gas money for my 1957 Chevy and what girl I could take-out and impress with it.</p><p></p><p>Greeting: You are hereby ordered for induction in the Armed Forces of the United States.</p><p></p><p>This rude awaking of the Military Draft Notice and the Induction system in general shocked and insulted my young artistic sensibilities - like it must have for most of the 300000 American men drafted that year that opened that envelope and reacted with the same combination of panic anticipation and resignation.</p><p></p><p> I'm sure some of the men/boys - as at 19 some of us were still boys - did support the war at least initially. And as my Dad served in the Army during WWII I did have the feeling that this was an obligation something that I should do - But nothing could have prepared me for what was to come..</p>