jshawaii22 wrote:River, that show's how families are different. I didn't know it until years' later, but my Mom had already set me up to go live with her Sister on Vancouver island if I was drafted. Her Sister told me that at my Mom's funeral. Nobody asked my opinion.
She was very anti-Vietnam, but considered herself very Patriotic and a Republican.
c_hawkbob wrote:I don't believe we'd gone all volunteer by 72, the draft ended the summer before my senior year (would have been in 74 as I graduated in 75), I remember it specifically because we had recruiters at our school and they were pitching the Navy pretty hard my junior year as a way to avoid being drafted and having to carry a rifle through the jungle ... then in my senior year they had to change their pitch because it was all volunteer by then.
My step dad hated Ali (would only refer to him as Cassius Clay), called him unpatriotic and a coward and all that, took a lot of arguing that refusing the draft on religious grounds was the kind of pure bravery he was always saying we needed to show in adherence to our religion. Ali could have sign up with fanfare and done the USO tour for 2 years ala Joe Lois and never seen battle and he knew it. Instead he stood up for his beliefs in the face of a government clearly in the wrong and for it was stripped of his title and his right to box for what should have been the best 3 1/2 years of his career. Yet he held his ground and eventually became the conscience of an America coming to grips with it's own morality. Dad never did give him his props, but at least he shut up about him.
savvyman wrote:Really cool Photo - Maybe the two biggest Cultural Icons of the 20th Century?
jshawaii22 wrote:I'll bet your Dad was a big John Wayne fan...
I remember that picture. My dad didn't like the Beatles any better than he liked Ali.
I'd limit the cultural icon time frame to the baby boomer generation, though.
obiken wrote:Hey, your one year older than me, exactly River. I was 18 in oct 73. Our dads were the same mold, although mine hated police actions, if drafted I would have gone, no question. However, I am functionally blind in one eye, so they would take me when I tried to volunteer in 2 years later. I cried when I couldn't go River, thinking my dad would be angry. Being a decorated vet of Hollandia, Biak, and Leyte, he came in said shut up, you don't know how lucky you are!! With my personality at 18, I would have just been cannon fodder, and I think he knew that.
My dad didn't love or hate Ali, he hated Jane Fonda.
I fly Old Glory in front of my house as much in memory for my dad as I do for the love of my country. I can feel him smiling down on me when I hoist it up the flagpole.
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