American Thinker

by R.W. Trewyn

    My success as a draft dodger lasted a few years back in the 1960s. Many teenagers got their “Greetings” from Uncle Sam during the Vietnam War, while mine arrived months after my 24th birthday.

    Looking back, though, I’m truly thankful the draft caught up with me. Serving in the U.S. Army contributed to every major achievement in my life thereafter. Most unexpectedly, those nineteen months in uniform were instrumental decades later in getting university promotions to administrative positions after sixteen years as a faculty member.

    President of a university-affiliated research foundation; dean of the graduate school; vice president for research. None of those would have been attainable were it not for becoming an Army staff sergeant and leading troops in combat. That’s 100% certain.

    Raised on a dairy farm in Wisconsin and uninspired throughout K-12 — earning one “A” in four years of high school — attending college wasn’t even a vague consideration. However, the “A” in accounting my senior year led to a diploma from an Illinois business school a year and a half later. That resulted in a bookkeeping job in Milwaukee, and immediately thereafter, my home county draft board started seriously nosing around.

    That’s when the “yikes” reality of getting drafted hit home. Vietnam wasn’t a big concern in 1963, but movie images of basic training were scary enough. And, of course, the possibility of ending up in Southeast Asia escalated significantly in the years that followed.

    As fate would have it, my father had a heart attack that year which led to my first draft dodging prospect when I moved back home to help milk the cows. The draft board probes had stimulated an interest in college that K–12 hadn’t, and there was a university just a couple miles away.

    My C+/B- high school report cards turned out to be good enough to get me in as a fulltime student in January of ‘64, so a savior deferment was acquired soon thereafter. Then when my father decided to sell the cows and retire, it allowed me to transfer to another university after completing three semesters, unbelievably, as an honor student.

    How I went from accounting to biology and why marine biology, in particular, tweaked my interest are immaterial, but I transferred to the University of Hawaii in 1965. That kept my draft dodging deferment in place where it remained for another two years.

    Problematically, my grades crashed the fourth semester on Oahu, requiring some time off to get my head back in the game. Maybe the draft board wouldn’t notice if I reenrolled the following spring back in Wisconsin.

    Yeah, right. With 1967 coming to a close, the draft Gods ensured that wouldn’t happen. My conscription gut-wrencher arrived December 23rd. Merry Christmas it was not!

    Working two jobs, as a drywall finisher and a bartender, there was barely enough time to give my employers proper notice prior to reporting for duty on 16 January 1968.

Then, after basic training and near the end of advanced infantry training (AIT), a 12-week school was offered to me, something I’d never heard of: the Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) Candidate Course. Well, since it didn’t add to my 2-year draftee obligation, why not

    Graduates of that body-beating endeavor became known as “Shake ‘N’ Bakes,” since making the rank of sergeant in the Army normally takes years. However, Vietnam created a huge shortage of infantry squad leaders and platoon sergeants, thereby requiring emergency measures to fix the problem — Shake ‘N’ Bakes.

    The Army Infantry leadership motto, “Follow Me,” was hammered home throughout those grueling weeks, but a complicating consequence was saved to the end. That’s when we were told that based on data out of Vietnam, four of five of us would be killed or wounded … an outcome of “Follow Me!”

    Somehow, with nearly 170 graduates in my class, I was one of eight attaining the rank of staff sergeant, E6, the others graduating as sergeants, E5. We were then sent to various U.S. bases where we assisted in pushing troops through one cycle of AIT prior to getting a 30-day leave, then heading to war in early January 1969.

    My time in Vietnam only lasted three and a half months, but every aspect of the NCO training was utilized and then some. After a couple weeks as a squad leader, my title jumped to platoon leader (doing the job of a lieutenant) at the end of an all-day battle when my company sustained extensive casualties. The remainder of my time in-country bounced around about equally between platoon sergeant and platoon leader (the latter with two different platoons), the reason always being the same … casualties. So, yes, I gained lots of combat experience before shrapnel 2-inches from my heart got me shipped to Okinawa.

    Discharged in August 1969, it was back to school three weeks later. I’ll bypass the fact that returning to college in my hometown was worse than combat in Vietnam. Nonetheless, my bachelor’s degree was completed in 1970, a PhD was added four years later, and cancer research (a belated biological fascination) was conducted in medical schools for twenty years.

    After that my career transitioned into research administration. And, lo and behold, my Shake ‘N’ Bake days became relevant again.

    Obviously, “Follow Me” is pertinent to leadership everywhere … or it should be. Leaders are supposed to lead. In addition, the Army training and combat experience provided other leadership insights useful essentially anywhere. When labeling them, my usual descriptions have come down to: think you can; “WE not ME;” and battlefield vision.

    Nowhere is positive thinking more critical — believing you can accomplish whatever the task may be — than on the battlefield. Your odds of success go way up and you certainly better understand that if your next command is going to be, “Follow Me!” Thinking you can’t will lead to disastrous outcomes and that’s true everywhere.

    “WE not ME” originated for me as a description of combat selfless service as I saw it exhibited by whole squads and platoons, not just individuals. Their brothers’ lives were all more important than their own. Awe-inspiring doesn’t even begin to capture it.

    Additionally, “WE not ME” has a universal leadership implication, i.e., it’s about your team, not you, the leader. Prove to the team that you’ve got their backs, and mission accomplished can become the norm.

    And, lastly, battlefield vision is important on the civilian frontline, a.k.a., workplace, as well. Making sense, then decisions, in the midst of chaos around you is invaluable throughout society, not just in war.

    Whether I succeeded at any of these is not for me to judge. However, learning them allowed me to achieve positions far above what should have been possible.

    Old guy wrap-up advice: More young people should consider military service. It can open future doors that can’t be envisioned. The individuals will be better off and America will be as well. Today, too few seem to recognize and value America as the Land of the Free. Time in the military — serving America — will help correct that problem.

    R.W. Trewyn: https://www.WelcomeEnterprises-US.com; the author of Vietnam’s War of Hate: Proud Military Veterans Vilified at Home.

    Image generated by ChatGPT.