In
a way I had the “good” fortune of being sandwiched between two
wars (Korean and Vietnamese) so that my expenses-paid-see-the-world
and draft-avoidance-inspired decision to join the Navy (I couldn't
see myself crawling through the mud holding an AK-47 over my head) in
1959 was by and large “peacetime” service (except for the major
annoyance of the Cuban Missile Crisis when my long-awaited release
from active duty was suspended for the duration). There was no GI
Bill for Tuition Assistance for 'tweeners' when I was released (thankfully on schedule and sans nuclear holocaust) from active duty
in 1962. I paid the tuition for my classes at Worcester Junior
College out of my own pocket. Tuition costs hadn't yet gone through
the roof in those days. |
| University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA |
A
GI Bill for Tuition Assistance for my category was passed by Congress
during my third year attending WJC. If I could get accepted at an
approved four-year institution it would be possible to quit working
and attend full time for a couple of years. I applied to Northeastern
University in Boston and the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
UMass had the double advantage of accepting all 54 of my junior
college credits plus a Massachusetts State living allowance
assistance for veterans. All systems were go for being able to earn a
Bachelors Degree within two years, so I quit my job at Colonial Press
and headed for Amherst in the Fall of 1967.
I
was some five years older than most of my classmates, most of whom
had entered university right out of high school. Having had prior
military service when I matriculated I was not directly threatened
with the military draft that was disrupting the lives of many of the
young males at the university. By then the full horror of the daily
body counts on television, both Vietnamese and American, was in
abundant evidence. Students were becoming radicalized, joining the
anti-war movement, demonstrating with sit-ins and some taking the
desperate measure of going to Canada to avoid the draft. Still others
felt it their patriotic duty to support the war. Campus splits began
to show in wearing apparel, music preferences, preferred forms of
entertainment and intoxicants. You couldn't be on campus in that time
and remain on the fence. Perhaps only in sympathy and inclination,
but you felt compelled to lean one way or the other. For me it was a
no-brainer, although not personally threatened by the draft, my
sympathies lay with those who were and who opposed the war on moral,
not ideological, grounds. Sadly, the disastrous and enduring results
of that ill-starred conflict continue to foment global chaos and
erode the fabric of our society in violence and fear today, but I do
not intend to dwell on that.
To
be continued...
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