If I Die Before I Wake

The year was 1968. I had already been in Vietnam for five months. I was 20 years old.

In August 1967 I was drafted out of my Anaheim, CA. home, and was no more aware of a Vietnam than I was aware of any "domino theory that was forcing the U.S. to escalate it's draft mandate. It was the time of The Tet Offensive, Apollo 8 orbiting the moon, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy; and about all my 19-year-old self could think about was getting gas money for my 1957 Chevy, and what girl I could take-out and impress with it.

"Greeting: You are hereby ordered for induction in the Armed Forces of the United States."

This rude awaking of the Military Draft Notice, and the Induction system in general, shocked, and insulted my young artistic sensibilities - like it must have for most of the 300,000 American men drafted that year, that opened that envelope, and reacted with the same combination of panic, anticipation, and resignation.

I'm sure some of the men/boys - as at 19 some of us were still boys - did support the war, at least initially. And as my Dad served in the Army during WWII, I did have the feeling that this was an obligation, something that I should do - But nothing could have prepared me for what was to come..