In June of 1969 I graduated from Valhalla HS located about 30 miles north of NYC. I had an appointment to West Point but I decided after talking with some cadets who had stayed at my house, to decline it since I wasn’t committed to a career in the military. Instead I went out to the University of Oklahoma to study meteorology and chase tornados. I still wanted to serve so I decided to join ROTC.
When I went to freshman orientation, the Air Force Colonel got up and said that if I joined AF ROTC I would have a 4-year active duty commitment. Then the Navy Captain (O-6) who had been the commander of the Liberty Ship that the Israelis had attacked during the 6 Day War in 1967 got up and said if I joined Navy ROTC I would have a 3-year active duty commitment. Finally, the Army Colonel stood up and said if I joined Army ROTC I would have a 2-year commitment. I said that was for me and joined Army ROTC in the fall of 1969.
The doors were locked but they were stuffing anti-war flyers through the cracks
In the spring of 1970, President Nixon sent US troops into Cambodia generating massive protests across the country. The ROTC would use a drill field across from the football field for Tuesday afternoon drill and it attracted a lot of protestors.
Finally, right after the Kent State protests where 4 students were killed by gunfire from Ohio National Guard soldiers who had been deployed onto the campus to stop campus protests that had been getting larger, there was the call for a national strike on college campuses across the country.
There were over 1000 protestors at our drill field and as we marched back to the armory on campus they followed us and then surrounded the building which housed the Army and Navy ROTC detachments. The doors were locked but they were stuffing anti-war flyers through the cracks in the door and those of us in there were basically trapped.
They stayed outside the armory for a few hours and then gradually moved away in small groups. When the vote was taken on the OU campus to have a one day strike it failed to get a majority but there were many people wearing t-shirts on the campus either supporting the strike or opposing the strike.
In the fall when students came back to school, Nixon instituted the lottery system for the draft and I joined many students in the student lounge watching the lottery drawing.
I joined many students in the student lounge watching the lottery drawing.
I still remember the cry of one student whose birthday was the first to be drawn. When I went to the armory later in the day, it was amazing how many of the ROTC students had drawn numbers higher than 180 while many of the non-ROTC people in my dorm had relatively low numbers.
As many of the land grant colleges had stopped making the first 2 years of ROTC mandatory, ROTC enrollments dropped dramatically over the next few years. I had been awarded a 3-year scholarship after my freshman year so I now had a 4-year commitment upon commissioning.
I was due to get commissioned in Spring of 1973 but with the Vietnamization of the War by Nixon and the US troop withdrawals from View Nam, the Army was not in need of as many officers and many Army ROTC officers were given a 6-month active duty assignment and then remainder of their time to be served in the reserves.
I was offered a Regular Army Commission in the Signal Corps which is what I wanted but I delayed my commissioning until December of 1974 as Viet Nam was totally winding down and this allowed me to do additional graduate studies.
I requested and received one of two RA Signal Corp 2LT assignment slots available at Fort Riley with the First Infantry Division where I went after going to Fort Gordon for Signal Officer Basic Course (OBC). Many of the officers that I met either at Fort Gordon or Fort Riley were very disillusioned about how things had turned out and many were RIF’d (Reduction in Force) due to too many Captains and Majors. With the reduction of active duty forces, they were either forced to return to enlisted rank if they had been enlisted before obtaining a commission through OCS without a college degree or just discharged.
It was difficult getting repair parts and training money in the mid-70’s and there was a lot of concern of how the Army would recover from this period. Fortunately, strong leadership came through and you saw this in Desert Storm.
My 2-year obligation that I took on in 1969 ended up being over in 1998 when I finally retired from active duty in Philadelphia. Longest two years I ever saw but no regrets and no doubts in serving my country as I could.