In that sense, you are very lucky.
No kidding! I even knew it then. Truth to tell,I never had a problem with draft resistors unless they were pro-communist. AFAIWC,if you just didn't want to go or were opposed to any and all wars,you shouldn't have to go,and I damn sure didn't want to have to rely on people around me who didn't want to be there.
the first 14 years the last guy picked for any sport when they pulled teams, I wasn't so sure, although physically at 17 I was worlds apart from the lousy shape I'd been at 13. Still, That was '74, we were pulling out of Vietnam, the Armed Forces were RIF'ing, and I still had the flat as a pool table feet I'd been born with.
They never have bothered me, although I'd been assured that I'd be 4-F. Got my draft card, classified as 1-H, and then they stopped the draft.
I was a fireman for aHaving spent few of those years, ran EMS, too, and moved on to college when I got the chance. It didn't take long for a kid who had spent much of his life outside, noticing how things worked, to take a geology course, and found that to be my passion. Since then I've only briefly held any 9 to 5ish job, spent most of my years in the field on oil rigs (and done a host of other jobs in between when the rig count bottomed). I don't regret any of that, just wish I'd been a mite smarter with the money I made, and home for a few more holidays.
Enlisting as Airborne,Unassigned, l lost all control over the job I would be doing in the army,other than being a paratrooper. Not that it mattered. I was only 17 and didn't know enough about jobs to know what I liked.
So the army sent me to Signal School to work in a classified communications center,sending and receiving messages. That was when I found out the number 1 thing I did NOT want to do was work in a Communications Center. Seemed like the hum and buzz of the machines mad my head hurt,plus I was bored out of my freaking mind.
Luckily for me and by pure accident on my part,that Signal Center was in a Special Forces Group at Ft.Bragg,and I was able to make contacts with a lot of people in the line companies. I eventually talked them into letting me leave Signal Company,and go to a line company to cross train as a light weapons specialist.
The down side was my prime Military Occupation Specialty was deemed to have a critical shortage of personnel back then,and in SF,there was only 2 E-5 slots in the entire group,and both were already filled. That was a MOS with a VRB base of 4,which was the highest,and since that was higher than the SF weapons man MOS,it HAD to remain my primary MOS. Which meant I couldn't get promoted past E-4 because the only slots for a E-5 were in Signal Company,and they weren't about to give one to someone not even in the company. So I ended up being one of only two E-4's I ever saw on an A-team. The other was Eddie Gleason,and he had a couple of Silver Stars and Purple Hearts,and had been busted back down to Corporal,basically for being Eddie. Excellent soldier who really knew his stuff,but he hated MP's and loved whiskey. Not a good combination.
This had no effect whatsoever on my jobs or how I was treated in line companies. Some of my best friends were E-6's and E-7's,and I was even friendly with a couple of Sergeant-Majors. It only affected my pay,which I was happy to give up as long as it kept me out of communication centers. I finally got promoted to E-5 after coming back to Bragg from VN.
I have had a lot of jobs since then,but none compare to being a professional soldier serving with other professional soldiers ,who just like me were there because they WANTED to be there.
I will be the first to admit that being in the regular army sucked all the oxygen right off the planet,though. I felt more like a prisoner,and later a prison guard,than I did a soldier. I can't blame anyone for wanting to avoid that.
