Graduation is a time to celebrate finishing school and looking forward with hope and anticipation to the array of opportunities ahead. Such was not always the case.
Not
very long ago graduating men and boys found a huge obstacle between them and
those opportunities: the Selective Service Act, the Draft. The Draft had a way
of not only influencing decisions but it made
those decisions.
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| The WWI Draft Card of Carl H. (Jack) Nolde |
Draftees
were a small percentage of soldiers in the Union army. Saving the Union was a
popular cause that fed the fighting force for over two years. Lincoln then asked
for authority to conscript soldiers and that threat sustained a flow of men
that nearly met the needs.
There
was no draft in the brief four-month long Spanish-American War. Europe was
almost three years into World War I before the US formally entered and began to
raise a force of 4 million.
The draft registration process for WWI was a three-day operation. Men aged 21 to 31 all registered on June 5, 1917. One year later on June 5, 1918 new 21-year olds registered and finally on September 12, 1918, just two months before wars end, all men age 21 to 45 were required to register.
Genealogists
love WWI registration cards where men listed their birthdates, birthplaces,
color of hair and eyes, build and a tall/medium/short selection. It may be the
only place to learn a man’s middle name.
World
War II threatened in 1940 when a survey of the US public showed 71% support for
“the immediate adoption of compulsory military training for all young
men.” The Selective Service used a
lottery system exclusively to round up more than 10,000,000 men aged 18-38 for
service as voluntary enlistments were suspended in 1942.
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| Men leaving Clay County for service in World War II earned recognition in local newspapers. This group appeared in the Sutton News on October 29, 1942; the to-be soldiers were identified left to right (apparently not distinguished by row) as: Glen McCune, Glenvil; Marvin Pope, Sutton; Ernest Hanson, Sutton; Roy Ochsner, Saronville; Marlow Munson, Sutton; Erwin Wenske, Glenvil; Glen Swanson, Sutton; Kent Wilson, Fairfield; Alfred Davis, Glenvil; John Dunleavy, Harvard; Louis Drudik, Deweese; Gayle Gunn, Edgar and Edor Johnson, Edgar. |
Selective
Service drafted 1.5 million over the age of 18 and a half for the Korean War,
just over half of those who served. A survey of draft age men found 64%
satisfied that this draft was fair.
Onto
Vietnam.
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| Army PFC Jack Schroder of Clay Center killed in Vietnam in 1967 at the age of 20. |
Men
of about those 50-year reunion classes lived this draft.
The
Vietnam War officially lasted from November 1, 1955 through April 30, 1975. The
US had “military advisors” “in country” from the 1950’s but things began
ramping up as troop levels tripled in 1961 and again in 1962 then numbers got
real serious in the mid-1960’s.
President
Kennedy early on balked at the idea of drafting family bread-winners and by
executive order exempted husbands. Curiously, marriages happened. As force
requirements increased that policy was changed to exempting only fathers.
Again, curiously, business in maternity wards picked up. These men were sometimes
called “Kennedy husbands” and “Kennedy fathers.”
Certain
professions such as teaching and other skilled workers were exempt allowing
them to continue in those jobs. The Peace Corps was authorized in late 1961 and
offered another escape from the draft. Personal note: had I managed the timing
better I would have been in West Cameroon from 1966-1968 and not at all from a
pressing desire to live in West Africa.
Society
appreciated that education is a good thing; hence, the student deferment came
into being. Curiously colleges and universities saw enrollment climb. Personal
note: University of Nebraska, 1961-1966.
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| Marine PFC Thomas Leichleiter of Harvard, killed in Vietnam in 1969 at the age of 18. |
Did
the draft influence these decisions by young people to get married, have kids
or go to college? No. The draft made
those decisions. Believe me.
A
classification system identified each individual’s relationship to the draft.
Status 1-A was “available for military service.” It was from this pool that the
county selective service office did their “pickin’ and choosin’”. There were
several other “1’s” including for conscientious objectors, members of the Public
Health Service and other services and 1-Y, qualified but only under greater
need (asthma was one such criteria.)
Number
2’s were deferments – you were on “hold.” Classification 2-C was for the
agriculture occupation; 2-S, “activity in study” – college student (five years
for yours truly) and 2-A, other civilian occupation deferments.
Classification
3-A was for fathers.
The
major Number 4 classification was 4-F, not qualified for any military service.
This
serious imposition into our lives sometimes created memorable situations. A
very good friend learned of his 4-F classification the morning of his wedding,
a wedding that would have happened eventually but was timed to qualify for the “husband”
deferment then in effect. Is that a true story? Take it from the Best Man.
Other
“4” classifications were for completed service, sole surviving son, minister,
alien and “officially deferred by law.”
Raise
your hands all that have been waiting for one other group: Canadian immigrants.
Perhaps
as many as 100,000 men who had exhausted this array of “outs” and still
seriously did not want to serve then chose to leave the country. Canada was the
most popular destination where officials did not extradite fugitives from the
draft. That fugitive status remained until President Ford issued a conditional
amnesty in 1974 and when President Carter later pardoned them.
The
net result of the Vietnam War era draft is that over 2.2 million men were
directly drafted between 1964 and 1975 and the draft is credited with
“encouraging” 8.7 million additional “volunteers” including yours truly. Again,
the draft not only influenced decisions
but made decisions for us.
One
more statistic: 58,195 men and women gave their lives in the Vietnam War and
are listed on the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. Though I’m telling
the story of the draft emphasizing those who were pressed, or “forced” into
military service, a large number of those who served, probably most, did so
truly voluntarily with full understanding of the consequences. Society levied an obligation on them, an obligation
that they met, willingly or not.
The
names of no Sutton men or women appear on that wall in Washington. Three Clay
County men are listed:
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| "The Village" is a book about the Marine unit of Marine Lance Corporal Paul Fielder of Harvard. The web site at http://www.vvmf.org/thewall/Wall_Id=16043 does not have a photo of Paul Fielder. Can anyone help with that? |
Marine
Lance Corporal Paul Wesley Fielder from Harvard on Panel 10E, line 97, died
September 15, 1966 in Quang Tin Province at the age of 20.
Marine
Private First Class Thomas Allen Leichleiter from Harvard on Panel 18W, line
122, died September 21, 1969 in Quang Tri Province at the age of 18.
Army
Private First Class Jack Wayne Schroder from Clay Center on Panel 28E, line 30,
died October 17, 1967 in Binh Long Province at the age of 20.
Please
read that last part again. Thanks.
Personal
wrap-up: After I’d nursed my 2-S deferment for five years and tested other
options our local Selective Service Board noticed that I’d graduated. They
reclassified me 1-A and I learned I was to be on the next month’s draft call. I
visited the recruiting offices in the Lincoln Post Office and “volunteered” for
the Air Force. Was I “avoiding” the draft or a “draft dodger?” Of course, I
just wasn’t very good at it.
The
Air Force surprised me with an assignment to a missile wing in Wichita, Kansas
as part of the Cold War. Wichita was not a bad place to spend “The War.” Then
one thing led to another leading to Montana, Omaha and finally Northern
California where, after 21 years I finally found a reason to leave. Few of
those decisions were mine but I was extremely fortunate.
Finally,
let me return to LCpl Paul Fielder who is listed above. Those who remember Paul
speak highly of him, from a tough background, a kid who saw the Marines as his
opportunity. His is a compelling story. A book, “The Village” tells the story
of his 15-man Marine unit and of the night he was killed. A synopsis of that
story is at http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=66076528
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| This photo of the Marine unit of Lance Corporal Paul Fielder was taken within two weeks of the attack that killed about one half of the unit including LCpl Fielder. He is seen here kneeling at the right. |
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| Rita Johnson before Panel W1, the last panel on the Vietnam Memorial Wall where the name of our friend Warren R. Spencer can be found. Warren was a B-52 radar navigator whose plane was downed on December 20, 1972 during the Christmas, 1972 offensive against Hanoi and Haiphong Harbor. One account of the incident is at http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/s/s213.htm The panel is reflecting back to the east to the Washington Monument past the visitors up the gentle slope of the early one half of the memorial. Smiles are rare here. |
This article first appeared in the Sutton Life Magazine in May, 2013. Contact Jarod Griess at 402-984-4203 or at neighborhoodlife@yahoo.com for more information about this publication.
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