Induced Enlistee

Induced Enlistee

How I Came to Serve Three Years in the Army during the Vietnam War

In late 1968, the military draft was an unpleasant reality and I appeared to be an imminent target. A phone call in December from a Marine recruiter had me on edge and my hometown of Manchester, Connecticut no longer seemed the same safe haven of my youth. The battles of the Tet Offensive were in the not-so-distant past and every night the television showed Marine or Army troops engaged in heavy combat with a fearless and determined foe.
 
I had seen enough network film footage of the battles at Khe Sanh and Hue to know that fighting with the Marines in I Corps was not where I wanted to be, so with the upcoming draft as a final stimulus, I began to explore other options. I talked with the local Navy and Air Force recruiters; each wanted a four-year enlistment to reach the relative safety of their duty stations, and four years seemed an endless commitment to someone who had just endured four long years of high school.

The Army offered an alternative to the draft and to a four-year enlistment: a three-year tour of duty allowing me to choose my military occupational specialty, or MOS. I thought about becoming an Intelligence Analyst, aside from Marines not drafting me into their infantry, there were three big advantages to this option: the opportunity for assignment to exotic duty stations, the chance to make rank faster, and the fact you traditionally worked with some of the better-educated enlisted personnel. The only caveat to this approach was if you had any disciplinary problems or other personal issues, all bets were off; you were in the Army for three years and they could do with you as they pleased.

In early January of 1969, the Marines drafted two friends from my days at Manchester High School and I was borderline frantic. Feeling trapped, I enlisted in the Army for a three-year commitment. I was what General William Westmoreland termed an “induced enlistee”, my fear of the draft and of ending up as a grunt in a combat unit had induced me to join the Army to avoid the infantry. After making that decision I never looked back; I harbored no Hollywood illusions or fantasies. I knew in my heart that I did not possess the desire or capability to endure a tour of duty as a frontline combat soldier. Canada was not an option, yet I knew I could not survive a tour in the infantry emotionally or psychologically. That was just something I knew and felt deeply.

In January of 1969, I left my home in Connecticut and reported to Fort Dix in New Jersey for Basic Training. After completing Basic, the Army remained good to its part of the deal and in March of 1969, I reported to Fort Holabird, Maryland where for the next two months I attended Army Intelligence Analyst training. At graduation, I was an official 96B20, a Military Intelligence Order of Battle Analyst. Along with the rest of the class, I anxiously awaited the announcement of our new duty stations. Out of a class of fifty soldiers, two went to Greenland, two to Alaska; two to Belgium, and the rest were destined for the Republic of South Vietnam.

In June of 1969, less than six months after enlisting in the Army at the age of nineteen, I found myself on the way to Vietnam. This was a shock in itself, yet the benefits of enlisting in the Army mentioned earlier turned out to be partially true. Although I quickly found myself stationed in Vietnam, I did not go to a frontline combat unit and I did participate in many interesting intelligence assignments. I received two Army Commendation Medals and rose to the rank of Specialist E-5 after seven months in country. I met and served with great people and made memorable friendships, yet early on, I realized the Army was not for me. I knew the only option available was to finish my enlistment, endure my time, keep my nose clean, and submit myself to the regimen of Army life until the magic day came and I could get out. Unless you had experienced that situation for yourself and knew what that daily grind entailed; submitting yourself to it all remained easier said than done.

My year of military service in Vietnam was an emotional mix of trepidation and excitement, all experienced during a period of great personal flux. I was changing and growing and so was the world around me. That year saw poignant and memorable events occur back in the States. There was the moon landing which we all listened to on radio. Three days of peace and music at the Woodstock Music Festival gave way to the Rolling Stones and the tragic free concert at Altamont Raceway in December of 1969. In April of 1970 came the bombing of Cambodia; this was quickly followed by the shootings at Kent State and the deaths of 4 students at the hands of the Ohio National Guard. Other widespread political demonstrations followed. The shooting at Kent State was a polarizing event for the soldiers I served with; some officers and older NCOs said it was about time the government made a stand and they seemed gratified and elated over the shooting. This created a line between the older and younger troops I never saw crossed. A month later my foreign tour of duty ended and I rotated back to the States.

In June of 1970 I left Vietnam and enjoyed a thirty-day leave at home in Manchester, Connecticut. Following that, I reported to my new duty assignment, the 14th Military Intelligence (MI) Battalion located at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. It was there that I finished my three-year enlistment in the Army. For the next year and a half, I served as an Afghanistan Intelligence Analyst in the Department of Intelligence Production.
 
During that period, I also endured my share of petty torments and noisome special duty assignments, punishments handed down with gusto by the company's Top Sergeant to all personnel that were not going to re-enlist, and especially to those who had made their disdain for Army life a matter of public knowledge.

My enlistment ended in October of 1971; I left the Army three months earlier than scheduled to attend school. My long days in uniform as an induced enlistee were behind me.
 
It was over.

Laudizen King
March 2009
Los Angeles