In January, 1964, I received my draft notice, quite unexpectedly. I hadn’t expected it for another year, but changing circumstances – specifically, the growing U.S. involvement in the Vietnamese civil war – prompted the government to call up more and younger men from the draft pool; and they caught me in the net. The head of the Long Beach draft board, a Ms. Patricia Fish, was determined not to let any eligible draftees to escape her clutches. But I outsmarted her. I delayed my graduation, which was scheduled for February, 1964, by taking an incomplete in a class that was required for graduation. Then, in the spring semester, a recruiter for Naval Officer Candidate School appeared on campus, and I struck up a conversation with him. I asked him whether it was possible to sign up for OCS now, but delay my entrance until several months after graduation, because I wanted to go to Europe in the summer. He replied that it was indeed possible, if I qualified, so I put in my application. To be admitted to OCS, I had to go to Los Angeles for an interview, which I aced (the interviewer was impressed by my academic record), and for a physical examination. The physical examination consisted of the examiner phoning the Long Beach draft board to request a copy of my Army physical. The person whom he talked to happened to be Ms. Patricia Fish, who, when she heard the request, screamed over the phone so that not only I but everyone else in the room could hear, “WHAT’S HE DOING THERE???!!!!!” She was not happy about losing one of the people she had counted on to fulfill her quota.
Nevertheless, I made it through the application process and signed up to enter U. S. Naval Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, in September, 1964. In the meantime I was able to fulfill my heart’s desire of traveling to Europe, and as an extra bonus, my first trip to Oregon in early September. I’ve described these adventures elsewhere; here is my account of some of the places, people and events I encountered during my career in the U. S. Navy.
