Missing the 1960's

[mchammer]

Unfortunately, they were never the same after that.

how could it be?

 

[everette]

Several of my classmates died over there. I got my draft notice a year after I was in the navy.

 

[mchammer]

Footnote: Those of us who were born in 1958 and 1959 (and the second half of 1957) never had to register with the Selective Service. When registration was reinstated in 1980, it only applied to guys born after 1 January 1960.

My 3 oldest brothers were born 56-58. I think the oldest had a high draft number and didn’t have to worry. I remember the family dropping him off at college his first year in 1974. I don’t recall any tension (more like the opposite). Amazing how a few years made all the difference.

 

[mchammer]

2nd oldest brother born March 30, 1957 and 3rd oldest born July 15, 1958.


Men born from March 29, 1957 through December 31, 1959, were not required to register with the Selective Service System because the registration program was suspended when they would have reached age 18. The requirement to register with Selective Service was reinstated in 1980, but only for men born January 1, 1960, or later.

 

[LousianaHorn]

my 18th Birthday January of 1974 I still had to register even though they had quit drafting by then.

 

[Giovanni Jones]

My junior high band director, Richard Bales, went to Vietnam as a 2nd Lt. and was a Captain by the time he came home. I never knew he had earned a Bronze Star until I read his obituary in 2009. He was a very cheerful guy and the last person I would have picked to be the great American warrior. He later became a Methodist minister.

 

[WorsterMan]

how could it be?

Perhaps not the best way to phrase it. Beyond the terrible loss and grief that would last for years and years, his death fractured the family in many other ways I won't go into. That is what I was thinking when I stated never the same.