Ask Not What I Have Done for My Country, Ask What My Country Has Done for Me. Julio Rodarte

how fleeting life could be. War is a concept that can be understood only after the fact, and such understanding seems impossible to impart to those who have not shared an equivalent experience.

      Military service attracts young people in peacetime and time of war for reasons both personal and patriotic. The majority of men who were called to serve in Vietnam went dutifully. I volunteered with the intention of serving in combat; others enlisted for precisely the opposite reason. But somewhere between the extremes of aggression and avoidance lay the personal motivations that attracted nearly eight million Americans to enlist during the Vietnam era.

      Vietnam was not a concern to those who entered the service prior to the summer of 1965, largely because full-scale American participation had not yet begun. Theirs were peacetime reasons for joining the military. Consequently, when the first American infantry unit deployed to Vietnam in 1965, the majority of the men in their ranks were volunteers.

      The military served as a form of social welfare for some, a relief mechanism for those in need of opportunity. But it was not the stellar opportunity afforded by the minorities into the ranks; rather, it was a lack of chances for employment elsewhere that channeled me into uniform. Many of us young men, minority members as well as whites, enlisted as a means of securing a better future and acquiring an education through the Montgomery GI Bill. Although it is common to assume otherwise, the most serious inequities between those who served in combat in Vietnam, and those who did not were based on social and economic distinctions rather than racial ones.

      Unfortunately, minorities in the United States were more likely to be poor; and the poor, as well as the poorly educated—regardless of race—found their way into the service and into combat at perhaps double the rate of their more affluent neighbors. The military was also a place where a young man might find some personal direction and self-discipline. For us young men, enlistment did not always indicate volunteerism. Some of the so-called volunteers were pressed into joining by a magistrate or judge who saw military service as a way to rehabilitate social misfits and petty criminals. These individuals had a choice to either do prison time or military time, and most chose to enlist in the United States Marine Corps.

      The majority of us Vietnam veterans are proud of what we did for our country; our greatest pride is in what we endured for one another. While some of us now believe that we were victimized, those of who volunteered can blame nothing more than our own innocence or our involvement in the war. I had not been duped or coerced by double-taking recruiters. I had simply trusted our government, believed the rhetoric, and stepped forward because, for whatever reason, that was the direction I wanted to go. I believed in my government and my country, and I was willing to do the ultimate “por me patera.”

      There was a widespread belief in the country that even if the war was unjust or unwinable, America could not simply turn tail and run. The war’s goals were honorable. For some, the conviction still exists that while the war itself was militarily mismanaged and politically doomed from the start, the ideals for which we fought were the right ones all along. I was determined to be one of the best, and I was not going to give up. I would not lose hope and determination and follow my instincts.

      Boot Camp—MCRD California

      I arrived at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California, on the evening of January 13, 1969, along with Fred Martinez, Bobby Romero, Delfino Roybal, and Juan Rodarte. We all attended Penasco High School. At the time, I can say that we didn’t know exactly what we were getting into. Once we arrived at MCRD (Marine Corps Recruiting Depot), our life changed totally. The day before, we were free; now we found ourselves being property of the United States Marine Corps. As we got off the bus, drill sergeants were yelling and giving all kinds of commands that we were not familiar with.

      First things first, they marched us to the barbershop, although we had gotten a military crew cut prior to leaving home by our cousins who had been in the Marine Corps before us. We went through the line just like everyone else, and at that time, we must have labeled ourselves because from that day forward, we were the center of attraction. Once the drill sergeants found out that we were all from the same Northern New Mexico communities, they were on our ass as flies on shit. We got the shit details, and we were constantly humiliated, especially by a Hispanic drill sergeant named Sargent Corrales. He had made up his mind to make us or break us. He would address us by our last name, to report as ordered; and when we were all in his duty hut, he would ask us where we were from. We would tell him, and he would say to us that we came from a puny-ass town that if one would blink its eyes, that one had gone by it.

      The Marine Corps remained largely consistently of volunteers throughout the Vietnam conflict. A few young men were drafted and, at the time of enlistment, were assigned to the Marine Corps, and it was not by choice. Its traditions and reputation, along with a classy public relations program, created an elite image that attracted many young men. As an enlistee, we were able to choose the branch of service we wanted, and we chose to join the United States Marine Corps.

      By 1970, the Marine Corps had begun withdrawing from Vietnam. That same year, the government began the lottery system in an attempt to select draftees more equitably. Approximately two million men were drafted during the Vietnam War.

      Each eighteen-year-old registrant received a 1-A classification unless he was granted an exemption or deferment by his local draft board for a necessary occupation, hardship, schooling, sole surviving son, or if a brother had been killed in a previous war, or for obvious physical impairments. Petitions for exemption or deferment were supplied to the local draft board by the registrants themselves.