[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Balthisar *
**
Good historical reference: a feature film based on a early 20th century novel telling about a fictional event happening to an Englishman in the 19th century by an naturalized Brit writing in Polish.
Close enough for government work.
TV time writes:
> Good historical reference: a feature film based on a
> early 20th century novel telling about a fictional event
> happening to an Englishman in the 19th century by an
> naturalized Brit writing in Polish.
Joseph Conrad grew up in Poland and didn’t learn English till he was an adult, but he never wrote anything in Polish. He wrote strictly in English.
Joined Army ROTC at my college - the only choice there, but another state college in the same city had Air Force ROTC, the colleges (OK the first was a University the 2d an Institute) had an arrangement where we could take their Air Force or Navy ROTC. Don’t know if they had Army or not, for reciprocity. Anyway, my Draft Lotto number was 216, so I never actually signed The Contract after my Soph. year.
Don’t want to throw kerosene on any fires here, but if one truly had political objections to the war, wouldn’t it have been even more cowardly to skip to Canada or join the Guard for that reason, than to do so simply for fear of being shot at? I mean, it’s natural to want to preserve your life, but it’s another thing to proclaim some moral superiority and then not have the courage to stand up for your convictions.
(This being in support of Guinastasia’s point, not arguing with it.)
Don’t know what * few and far between * means but I remember being among a large numbers of active duty Air Force enlistees released six-months early (early 1969) while the country was still drafting young boys and activating Guard and Reserve units. We were told that because so many of the activated Guards/Reservists were relatively higher ranking, the personnel budget was going bust, so they released those of us with more time in grade to be replaced by fresh new cannon fodder.
many conscientious objectors agreed to join on the basis that they would be medics or corpsmen. Corpsmen in the Navy were frequently assigned to marine battalions who served 13 months in vietnam to prove they were more manly than the army (12 months normal rotation). I joined the navy and took a rating I thought would put me on a ballistic missile submarine. Only after I joined did it occur to me that I was trading the possibility of killing a few soldiers on a battlefield for supporting a base that could wipe out half the population of the world. Fortunately I ended up on the aircraft carrier John McCain blew up. It was so badly damaged that it never again was used in battle and never fired a shot in anger and is now mothballed. Funny how things work out. It isn’t gutless to run to canada (though that route is now closed, thanks to a treaty the two nations signed some years ago) or to sweden. If you’ve ever turned your back on everything you ever knew and gone to live for the rest of your life in a place where you know no one, particularly one as cold as Canada, exiled perhaps forever from your family and friends, you know it takes considerable guts. Many young men went to prison, with all of its delights, rather than go to war. Many gutless wonders went to vietnam because they couldn’t buck the expectations of their family and friends. Never judge another person’s motivations or actions. You just can’t know what they’re going through.
I didn’t know about this. Please elaborate.
Haj
Isn’t this a little unfair on John McCain?
IIRC it was a missile fired accidentally from another plane which hit his aircraft on the flightdeck of the USS Forrestal.