On Wed, 14 May 2008 01:29:11 +0000, Larry wrote:

Vic Smith wrote in
:

AFAIK it's a better Navy today. Smarter.

We were just prisoners....volunteer prisoners avoiding the Vietnam Army
draft.

I enlisted in the Navy when I was 16, about a month before JFK was
shot. Everything was done but the oath taking.
Took the oath and was in boot camp all in one day a couple months
later, the day after my 17th birthday.
My ma wouldn't let me go on my birthday.
Viet Nam and the draft had nothing to do with it.
I never had a draft card.
If Viet Nam had been hot when I turned 17 I probably would have joined
the Marines to fight commies.
A couple years into my Navy time there was a call for Swift boat crew
for Viet Nam and I volunteered.
They didn't want boilermen on Swift boats, so I never scored that
hazardous duty pay.
Like I said, smarter Navy today. Mostly due to better education,
better training, and fewer 17 year-olds.
And not a one of them is dodging the draft.

--Vic