Upon entering Boston State College, Gerard Golden received a 2S exemption from the draft. He was allowed four years to go to college. After he graduated from college and his exemption from the draft was up, he immediately was ordered to take a physical for induction. He was also accepted to graduate school at University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His plan was to be in college when the draft board called again and then maybe he could get exempted again. After a couple of months passed in graduate school he was told to report for induction.
Trevor Mahoney
I had only been in school for a couple of months and I had to report back to Quincy for another physical for the draft. I, along with four bus loads of men, had to take the physical that day. Of the four bus loads, only a total of one bus load passed the physical and could be called by the draft, I was one who passed. All I could do was wait after that.
Around December of 1970 I received a letter from the Commander-in-Chief , Richard Nixon. The letter basically read that I had six months until I had to report for duty. In June of 1971 I reported to Fort Dix in New Jersey for my basic training. I was there until August and then was moved to Fort Gordon in Georgia for my AIT or Advanced Individual Training. Then in November, December and January, I had to learn Morse-Code and radio teletype. During December we received a two week leave to go home. After our training in Morse-Code and teletype my class of 40 was told that we all had orders for Vietnam. Then we got a week's training about the Republic of Vietnam, health hazards we should know. Then we received another leave of two weeks. When the leave was through we were to report to Fort Lewis in Washington State. We were supposed to report on a certain date at a certain time. As the 40 of us arrived in Washington from Boston, 38 of us decided to spend an extra night inSeattle. Only two of my class showed up on time - and they were sent to Vietnam. The rest of us were diverted to Europe. We were AWOL for twelve hours. We figured, what are they going to do, send us to 'Nam ? We're already going.
We waited at Fort Lewis inWashington until we were sent back to Fort Dix. We spent a week in the same clothes because we had none. We gave our's back because we were supposed to have jungle issue for Vietnam and now we were diverted to Germany right away. When we got to Fort Dix we waited another week in the same clothes. I was finally stationed at the Ernst Ludvig Kaserne ( barracks ) in Darmstadt, Germany. I was to be there for 10 months when they let me out early to go back to graduate school. I was in the military for 19 months out of the 24 I had to serve.
Gerard Golden
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