Declaration of War

I was going insane.  Military types kept coming by my house and school to see what I was up to, when would I be back, etc.  There was simply no saying “No” to these guys!

Then I was drafted!  Yeah, the nice waxy, quarter inch thick cardboard mailer arrived telling me that Uncle Sam had the perfect plan for my life.  Except, I was 17.  Not 18.  You could not draft a 17 year old!  The Army recruiter could not have cared less.  I was on his list and he wanted me as a check mark on his sheet (and as it turned out, a $50 bonus for each 17 year old he got!).  I tried cutting up the card, no luck.  I tried burning it, no luck.  I even boiled it, ok, it warped.  So, since it was in illegal document I threw it in the trash!  (Bet I could sell it eBay these days!)

Father’s connection with President Nixon personally killed my draft, or so we thought.  No one could have foreseen Nixon would be brought down in a hail of shame, nor that the US Army would use this opportunity to go for the jugular to get me and a host of other 17 year olds.

I moved to Seattle safe in the knowledge I could pursue my studies free of any more Army distraction.  Nixon had by now killed the entire draft (January 12, 1973) and as I was 18 on January 15th, my number was so high there was no chance of it coming up.  And, yes, all of us males watched our numbers closely throughout 1973!

In October 1973, the Army attempted my arrest under the grounds of desertion from the military.  Unfortunately, the MPs came upon my mother when she had just finished talking with my father (her now ex-husband) on the phone and she was already loaded for bear!  After my sister told me what happened, I felt really sorry for those two MPs and then the four city cops whom responded to the disturbance report…..  That sure would have been one for YouTube!

By now, the guy whom I greatly feared had somehow learned I was part of a special group in the Army and he was on a target list.  (Just what was the Army up to?!)  And he cut a contract for my extinction.  Yeah, in a civil society it is so hard to believe that a no one like me could be wanted dead by anyone, much less someone I knew! 

Although, I might have poo-poo’ed this as the raving of my father – I could not disregard the hospitalization of my stepmother whom had been beaten to a pulp for hours by four guys looking for me.  She had no idea how to find me, nor did my father.  I thought the Army might have done it, but a quick check with a friend whom knew the affairs of the bad guy, told me otherwise.  My friend’s death two days later in a hail of bullets confirmed my worse fear – something was terribly wrong with my understanding of the world….

The US Army was faking paperwork to get me, only the Army could have released information that I was in the military – everyone else knew I was not!  And, a very dangerous man had gotten too serious in trying to silence me - because I knew whom he really was.

I did the only thing I could, I moved, but in a direction no one could have expected.