I remember having to go before the draft board to go to Viet Nam when I turned 18.
I cant say I was a pacifist. But I do know I did not want to get killed.
I told the draft board I had a problem going into the army because of my mothers religion.
I said maybe, I would go in the coast guard and drive around Lake Erie in a boat.
They said you have a pretty high draft number 181. Why don't you just wait and see if we get that high.
They never made it to 181.
I do remember feeling very conflicted. I would not have been happy in jail as a conscientious objector and I would have gotten sea sick riding around in a boat on Lake Erie or the Mekong Delta.
I did not know it at the time 18 years old but I am pretty sure today that God killed more people in the bible than the Devil ever did. I think Satan only killed 10 people in the bible.