"The Sinopians" Somewhere In Time

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                                                 As told by Rodger Jones

The Rodger Jones story
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Authored by Rodger Jones

The year was 1967. The Vietnam war is raging  and the  selective  service draft system is in full tilt operation.   I had just graduated from Ohio State University. I really  wasn't  too aware of the draft system,  and applied  to graduate school.  Although I wasn't aware of the draft system,  it seems they were aware of me.  The  net effect  was that I received a draft notice shortly after I graduated. The notice to appear was clear,  but it seemed I might still have some options.
 
The options were to either try to find a National Guard slot, to volunteer
or to be inducted as a draftee. Unfortunately,  despite my best efforts to
find a NG slot, none were to be found.  The alternatives appeared  to be
my options and I was not too keen on being drafted. The advantage  of
being drafted was  that  the  commitment  was  limited  to two  years,  in contrast to a regular Army enlistment, which was three years. The disadvantage  of being  drafted is  that you  probably  would  be  assigned to  an infantry  position, One thing was very clear and that was the date and time I was to appear for a pre induction physical.
 
When I appeared at the Ft. Hayes  induction center,  I was subjected to a battery of tests.  I  scored high on all the exams,  but  highest  on  the language  aptitide test. This was not a surprise to me,  since I had taken four years of Latin in high school.
 
In any event, the induction center counselor advised me that as a result of my high scores, I might want to consider the Army Security Agency, and language school.
 
Army Security Agency ?  I had never heard of it, nor did I have any reason to have heard of it.  The counselor was pleasant enough and  he was able to provide a comprehensive description of the ASA, and it didn't sound too bad, given the only remaining alternative. The only downside that I  could see, was that the ASA would require a four year, regular Army enlistment.
 

                                                     As told by Ron Hoke

The Ron Hoke story
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Authored by Ron Hoke

I was enrolled in my freshman year at Indiana University in Bloomington and was quickly running out of funds. The Vietnam war was looming.  I  spurned   taking out a  bunch  of student  loans and decided I might  dodge the draft by enlisting in the Army for the standard three years.  Subsequent   test scores prompted the Army recruiter to suggest an additional year to get into an elite,  highly  educated  branch of the service  (Army Security Agency)  that trained their people at country clubs and did not have any personnel in Vietnam.
 
The desire not to get shot at makes youth gullible, doesn't it?  Anyway, by mid March, I had explained all  this convincingly to my parents and  to my best girl Nancy, and I was in Chicago getting processed for induction.  A subsequent train ride to the heart of Missouri and a short hop by bus dumped me and a few others at Ft. Leonard Wood, for more tests and basic training.
 
A smooth-talking ASA representative then gave a brief counseling session to me and advised that my ALAT (Army language aptitide test) had more or less condemned me to a foreign language school,  so I might as well make it one of my three training choices.  I hated studying foreign languages in high school and the one semester at IU.
 
So,  I put down traffic analysis as number one (the guys who it turned out were getting shot at in Nam), language as number two with three European eastern block languages (Polish, Russian and German) and something else for number three.
 

 

                                                 As told by Bob Nimmerfroh

The Bob Nimmerfroh story
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Authored by Bob Nimmerfroh

Content will be added when Bob Nimmerfroh submits something !

The Jim Bryson story
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Authored by Jim Bryson

                       Content will be added when Chester Dryke submits something !

The Chester Dryke story
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Authored by Chester Dryke

Tempus Fugit