Part One

Whether or not you agree with or disagree with President Bush’s recent decision to sent an additional 21,000 U. S. troops into Iraq there is something in this decision that every single American should find reprehensible. The change of policies, which permits the length of tour in the combat area to be extended and the recall to a combat area with only one year in between tours of duty, is that thing.

I am a former Utah National Guard member who served with the 19th Special Forces Group Airborne during the Vietnam War years. I have Silver Wings and seventeen successful parachute landing falls, however the unit was never called to combat duty during my six-year commitment therefore I do not have a Combat Infantry Badge.

At the time of my enlistment into the Guard, every single young American male had one of five options or choices to make regarding the United States involvement in Vietnam One was to get some type of deferment, I had a student deferment for a time. Two was to leave the country and go to Canada or Mexico to evade the draft. Joining the National Guard was number three. To voluntarily enlist into one of the services was option four. The final option was to take your chances of being drafted. Deferments only lasted for specific periods of time, i.e. until you finished college or returned from your LDS mission. Leaving the country either took great courage and commitment or lack there of. If you joined the Guard you understood there was a possibility, however slim that your unit could be called to active duty and sent where ever. At that time probably Vietnam. If you enlisted you were probably headed to Vietnam after training. If you were drafted there was a high probability you were going to Vietnam.

Here now is the great shame of the current administration's decisions. Back then, to the best of my recollection, if you joined the Guard you knew you had six years to serve, an active duty commitment to complete your military training, two weeks summer camp each year and one weekend a month with your unit. If you were drafted you had a total six year commitment, two years active duty and probably a tour in Vietnam and then four years of inactive duty. If you enlisted you served on active duty for four years with a high probability of a tour of duty in Vietnam and then had two additional years of inactive duty commitment. Your tour of duty in Vietnam was 365 days and a wake up, either as a volunteer enlistee or as a draftee. You knew that if you survived the 365 days the only way you were going back was if you volunteered to go back. By changing the current rotation and tour of duty time periods the Bush administration is saying, to the all-volunteer members of the armed forces and their families, you can not hold us to our word. Only those few of you who have volunteered must pay the price for our decisions, over and over again. I do not believe any American can be okay with these policies unless they are willing to be and or have their sons and daughters be, at a minimum, subject to a lottery system of induction into the armed services of these United States.

Rise up your voices and let this administration know you do not believe their actions to be just or honorable.

Frank V. Pedroza
West Valley City