I graduated from Erie Community College in 1968 and applied to the University of Buffalo’s School of Architecture. However, the Tet Offensive had erupted, two patrol boats of ours had been captured in the Gulf of Tonkin, and a US airbase in Pleiku had come under attack, leading the then commander of US forces, General Westmoreland, to contact LBJ for help. President Johnson could not find enough volunteer troops to send to Vietnam, so he reinstated the draft. Since I was technically between schools during summer break and not actively enrolled in school at the time, I was drafted into the Army and had to report for active duty on January 2nd, 1969.

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