Jay Scott Faux-Stag Grips

[John Sabato]

David, The short version...( yes really! )

I was drafted in October of 1967 a couple of years before people got "lottery" numbers. And I served for 20 years.

Only by the grace of God, did I not go to Vietnam as many of my friends and peers did. As such, I also feel that I missed that experience.

After completing both Basic Combat Training (BCT), and Advanced Individual Training (AIT), I was stationed stateside until November of 1972. Many that I know that arrived at my first station with me, were shipped to VN within a year, and some even came back to the same place, and I WAS STILL THERE! ...and I have no idea why... the DOD was just starting to heavily computerize operations and pay, and I guess my personal assignment 80-column IBM card got folded, mutilated or spindled at the military personnel center.

Suddenly in the summer of 1972, over 300 people at that assignment received orders and most all of them went to VN... a handful were sent elsewhere... I got sent to East Africa! and spent a year at a place called Kagnew Station (you can google it to find out what that mission was all about). It was the ONLY U.S. Military base on the African continent at the time.

I experienced the early years of the bloody struggle that Eritrea had in their fight for independence from Ethiopia first hand (the US was Ethiopia's ally at the time), but I know it was nothing like VN. Americans were never targeted, only the Ethiopian forces.

When I returned to the USA in November of 1973, I was sent back to the location where I received my AIT as an instructor in my military occupational specialty (MOS). By the time that assignment was over, The war in VN began what was called "vietnamization" where the local forces took over most of the combat roles... and then in 1976, well after the US withdrawal from VN, I was sent to Italy and spent almost 5 years there.

I had led a charmed life during my career IMHO. I was honorably retired in February of 1988... and then watched us prepare for, and fight the Iraq war...

Though prepared to serve anywhere, and having been present at a few "hot spots" during my career, I never fired a shot that wasn't practice. Lucky? maybe... maybe not... Blessed is more like it.

Now, every time I see someone in uniform, or an older person wearing a ball cap that indicates that they served, I take the time to walk up to them, shake their hands if feasible, and thank them for their service. I encourage you all to do the same.