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Like many men of my generation, I had an opportunity to give war a chance,
and I promptly chickened out. I went to my draft physical in 1970 with a
doctor's letter about my history of drug abuse. The letter was four and a
half pages long with three and a half pages devoted to listing the drugs I'd
abused. I was shunted into the office of an Army psychiatrist who, at the end
of a forty-five-minute interview with me, was pounding his desk and shouting,
"You're fucked up! You don't belong in the Army!" He was certainly right on
the first count and possibly right on the second. Anyway, I didn't have to
go. But that, of course, meant someone else had to go in my place. I would
like to dedicate this book to him. I hope you got back in one piece, fellow. I hope you were more use to your platoon mates than I would have been. I hope you're rich and happy now. And in 1971, when someone punched me in the face for being a long-haired peace creep, I hope that was you. |