Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
The Question of Time: What Was Life Like in 1963?
serious crayons:
Wow, Roland, I just caught up on this thread and read your postings. Very sobering. A disturbing reminder of those old attitudes.
It's amazing, those phrases like "homosexuality -- and the problem it poses," as if in and of itself it's a problem, or "There are also the ‘respectable’ homosexuals who pair off," with the "respectable" in quotations to show that, well, a homosexual can't hope to be really, truly respectable.
It's also interesting that the article focuses almost exclusively on men.
2robots4u:
I've just gotten around to reading this thread, and I wanted to comment on some of the comments dated in mid Feb.
Re: Draft...married men with dependent children were not protected from the draft. My best friend with a 5 month old child was drafted and sent to Viet Nam immeidately. Full-time college students were exempt for a while...there was a lot of controversy over who was and who wasn't exempt, and that helped started the exodus to Canada.
RE: Pow braclets...I did wear one for a short time. My POW, a Chief Warrant Officer, was declared dead about 8 months later, and I sent the braclet to his family.
RE: The CPO jacket mentioned was actually a Navy coat, made of heavy material and came down to about mid-thigh, usually for colder weather wear. We, of the Air Force had one which came to just below the knees, weighed a ton, and was nick-named "Big Bertha". It was for wear only with the Dress Blues. I believe the Army jacket mentioned was what is called a "Field Jacket", lightweight, and became a popular item with the younger generation after the Viet Nam vets returned home. Many are still around today, and I see them everytime I go to the VA Hospital in San Diego.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: 2robots4u on February 28, 2007, 11:46:29 pm ---I've just gotten around to reading this thread, and I wanted to comment on some of the comments dated in mid Feb.
Re: Draft...married men with dependent children were not protected from the draft. My best friend with a 5 month old child was drafted and sent to Viet Nam immeidately.
--- End quote ---
Does anybody know what role local draft boards had--if any--in who got sent? And if they had a role, did it change over time? There was a mention in one of Fernly's posts that the rules changed.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: 2robots4u on February 28, 2007, 11:46:29 pm ---Re: Draft...married men with dependent children were not protected from the draft. My best friend with a 5 month old child was drafted and sent to Viet Nam immeidately. Full-time college students were exempt for a while...there was a lot of controversy over who was and who wasn't exempt, and that helped started the exodus to Canada.
--- End quote ---
That is such an incredibly classist policy. Who's more likely to be in college? Wealthier men. Who's more likely to have dependent children? I'd guess poorer men. (I'm not absolutely sure of the statistics back then, but I have no doubt that wealthier men nowadays are more likely to reproduce later.)
And it doesn't make sense on any moral or logical grounds. What will be harder for a man to catch up on after returning from the war -- the remainder of his college education, or his children's childhood? Who will be grieve more deeply if the man doesn't make it back at all? The employees of the university registrar's office, or his children?
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: latjoreme on March 01, 2007, 02:14:05 pm ---That is such an incredibly classist policy. Who's more likely to be in college? Wealthier men. Who's more likely to have dependent children? I'd guess poorer men. (I'm not absolutely sure of the statistics back then, but I have no doubt that wealthier men nowadays are more likely to reproduce later.)
And it doesn't make sense on any moral or logical grounds. What will be harder for a man to catch up on after returning from the war -- the remainder of his college education, or his children's childhood? Who will be grieve more deeply if the man doesn't make it back at all? The employees of the university registrar's office, or his children?
--- End quote ---
Ever hear the phrase, "A rich man's war and a poor man's fight"? Ain't right, but thus has it ever been and maybe is likely to remain, barring universal conscription. Vietnam led to outcries over it, but even today, I suppose, who is more likely to volunteer for the all-volunteer army, the college president's child or the child of the college cafeteria worker?
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