Strange Reunion

Nate is really slammed at work and I am pleased that he asked me to help out by picking up some video equipment that he was renting  from a business in Seattle.  As I drove out Denny Way to 15th, I entered a part of Seattle that I had seldom ventured.  I stopped at the given address and the building was vaguely but hauntingly familiar.  Over the next few days I mulled over the vision of that building and came to a conclusion.  As I delivered the equipment back to that address two days later, I inquired to the tech that checked in the equipment as to the history of the building.  The 30ish male sized me up and smiled.  "This was the induction center during the Viet Nam War.  Many of the men your age that come into this building ask that question."  Yes, this is the building that I spent a day in 1969.  I gathered with hundreds to take the intelligence test, followed by several hours of walking from one station to another with only a towel for cover, as they checked every joint and crevice of my body.  Then, fully clothed, there were the presentations of what the process would be for induction.  Finally, the Sargent in charge stated that we could go except for those who may "have an exception".  He stated that if we were not Army eligible we need to go to room such and such.  But he also warned us that a lie goes two ways.  To say that you are not Army ready and you are is a lie.  To say that you are Army eligible and you are not is also a lie.  Both would have repercussions.

I went to the room.  After some waiting I met one on one with an Army doc.  When I presented him with the report from my hematology doctor in Spokane, the doc stamped my paperwork 4F and dismissed me.  A few months later I received an updated status in the mail "1Y - can only be drafted in case of a national emergency."  Thus ended my military "career".   I have often thought of that day and how my life, or loss of it, would have changed if I had not had a bleeding disorder.