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The Price We All Have Paid is Too High
Our national bills are coming due; sacrificing citizens and lives, from children to the elderly to our best young men and women — the bill is too damn high
Looking at Vietnam War memorials, Bruce found his school friend from the Boy Scouts who enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps at age 17 and who was killed in combat at age 18.
Bruce had a college deferment from the draft. My brother was in college, but his draft number came up, though ultimately, he didn’t get called.
In my late 20s, I seriously considered enlisting in the U.S. Air Force. My first fulltime boss was a retired USAF Colonel who I greatly admired. Growing up near Norton Air Force Base (closed by Bill Clinton in the 90s, resulting in severe economic deprivation that I saw first-hand as director of the largest, most functional assistance charity in the area — I personally think closing bases in more conservative regions led to the monoparty control of California and its severe degradation that we see today) and also having family members as retired Naval and Marine Corps officers, and a close friend who retired as the highest-ranking USMC female officer at that time —
