You could have enlisted in the Navy, a whole lot safer and cleaner
than jungle warfare. A lot of my high school friends were drafted
into the Army. They said the worst part was constantly living in
dirt, no toilets, no decent food. With the Army hanging over my head
during my senior year in High school I enlisted in the Navy, the best
decision I made in my life. A month after my 18th birthday I was sent
to the US Naval Training Center in Illinois for Boot Camp. Nine weeks
later I was at sea. Just before the Nam thingie began my enlistment
was up. I didn't enlist to escape Nam, it hadn't began, I enlisted to
escape the Army. The thought of living in foxholes was frightening.
Life aboard ship is scrupulusly clean. clean toilets, showers every
day, and since I owned the keys to the food lockers I ate better than
at any other time in my life. I can't say it was easy, shipboard life
is extremely physically demanding, working in a galley on land is
difficult but nowhere as difficult as aboard a relatively small ship
always at sea, never stops rocking and rolling. At first the rough
seas were frightening but in a very short time one acclimates and it
seems very normal to pee with 40º pitches and rolls. At times the sea
was calm as a bowl of jello but most times not. Often naval ships
search out and head into storms for conducting general quarters
maneuvers... my GQ station was the 5' aft gun mount. Everyone is a
assigned a variety of tasks.
The Navy is something I did that I never regret.