Select this to read [the Whole Story].I went to the WRL and talked to Ralph DiGia about what to do at my physical. I ended up writing a letter [I'll append it below if I can find it], making multiple copies, and taking some WRL leaflets. I distributed them outside the induction center till we went in, and inside too till they made me stop. I gave a copy of my letter to the desk officer to be put in my file. He said, "You bet we'll put this in your file, sonny." I then went through the standard routine, including filling out the long questionnaire which asked, among a million other things, "have you ever had a homosexual experience", to which I answered "yes". After a while they sent me to sit on a bench outside the psychiatrist's office. He looked at my papers and said "Where do you cruise?" I said "What?" We went around a few times until he figured out I wasn't an active homosexual, then he told me to leave. I said, "Look, they're just going to send me back anyhow. Why don't you read the letter I wrote." He read it and said, "I don't get this. Are you a conscientious objector or not? If you are, why don't you just apply for CO?" I said, "Let me explain it to you. I am not a CO. First of all, I don't believe in God. Second of all, I don't oppose violence." Him: "Then what is this letter about?" Me: "I'll spell it out: I don't oppose violence, but I'll be damned if I'll let the US government tell me who to shoot. If you give me a gun, I'll use it, but it will be against officers, not Vietnamese", or something like that. Anyway, he went bullshit and started stamping things all over my file. I sat outside another few hours, then they sent me home. With a 4-F. So I didn't have to worry about what most of my generation had to worry about for the next years.
Select this to read [the Whole Story].
