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Things are Bad Now [1]
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Date: 2025-03-31
Things are bad now but they once were worse. I was drafted in 1966 after finishing college that summer in Memphis. Earlier that summer I had applied for Army Officer Candidate School. The review board of 6 Army officers included one black NCO. He asked me how I would treat black soldiers, me being a young white guy. I said I would have to be extra careful not to discriminate against black soldiers. They did not seem to like that answer.
Later, after being drafted, I reapplied for OCS. This time the reviewing officer was a black infantry Major. I told him the above story. He approved my application. Later, after finishing OCS I was assigned to Camp Sobe on Okinawa. I was an XO, Assistant Adjutant and Company Commander.
I used to sit in my office drinking army coffee, eating army donuts, and reading the Stars and Strips, the army newspaper. Every week there was a column listing causalities in Vietnam. More than once I saw the names of friends I knew from OCS. I was not a very good officer. I was just a body in a place. Not much I did mattered. I spent three years, three months, and three days in the army and got out in one piece. 58,220 Americans did not.
Being overseas in the late 60s I missed a lot of what went on at home. We were divided even more then than we are now. The Democratic party after LBJ was in a shambles. But so much of what he accomplished has come down to us. Then, there was blood in the streets. There may be blood in the streets before the next 4 years are over. But even if that’s what it takes, the country will survive. The good that LBJ did in the 60s survived Nixon, Reagan, two Bushes, and two more wars. America will survive Trump but the only thing that will survive him is bad memories and hard learned lessons.
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