I only have sympathy for those drafted, and even then it's hard to justify immoral actions. Maybe people were treated like monsters, because they were monsters.
So you have no sympathy for those who were about to be drafted (They had sequential numbers, you know. You knew if you were next in line.) and enlisted to hopefully avoid certain types of duties?
Because that's where my dad found himself. He enlisted in the Navy hoping his scores would garner him a reasonable job where he wouldn't be shot at on a daily basis. For him it worked. For many others it didn't.
He ended up a Fire Control Tech on a helicopter carrier. Radar, missile systems, and nuclear weapons movement qualified. (I get a chuckle out of his nuclear weapons school wall hanger. They don't give stuff like that out anymore...)
He didn't want to be there at all but did his part to protect his shipmates and eventually was quite proud of serving his Country.
The only "monsters" were the politicians who sent them, and many believe they had little choice. Others believe otherwise.
Says absolutely nothing about the folks who WENT, however. They signed up to serve at the pleasure of whom?
On the way home, he "got to" go help minesweep the Suez Canal. Carter sent him there.
Sound like any other never-ending cluster-****s we are still dealing with today in global politics in that region? History repeats.
Signing up to serve doesn't make you a monster. Especially if they were going to draft you anyway.
And it's a hell of a lot more moral than hiding in Canada was. Or behind family money and politicians.
"It ain't me. It ain't me. I ain't no Senator's son."
