Today, this meme was posted on my Facebook feed. It brought back a flood of memories for me of that time. I did not fight in the Vietnam War. Though I was in college, I never applied for a student deferment from the draft because I thought it was unfair to those of my generation who were not in college. Why should I receive a privilege that was unavailable to those who did not? The year I was eligible for the draft, it had evolved into the lottery system. A number was assigned to a person’s birthday. As it happened, the number that was assigned to my birthday was 266. Had I been born a day before or a day after my birthday, my draft number would have been 60 or 158. The draft board went up to 254 that year. From that moment on I was given a new draft status, 1-H. I ended up not being drafted into the armed forces.
However, I never forgot those who fought, died, and those wounded by that war. The irreparable psychological damage caused by combat was as grave as the physical wounds suffered by these men and women who served. Many died in the Vietnam War, but didn’t know it as Agent Orange completed that task many, many years later.
On this anniversary of what now has been seen as a major failure of American policy with such a high cost in human life, I resubmit a prayer song I composed back in 1975 for those who fought and died in that war. It was one of my first piano musical compositions. I think the song equally applies to all those who have fought in the Gulf War, in Iraq, and in Afghanistan.
