When I moved out here to the sticks, I really wanted to get away from what I considered a toxic sociiety that looked to me like it was spinning out of control. This was right before Covid hit, which reinforced my opinion. Nothing since has happened that would cause me to reconsider my opinion.
My lillte brother came out to deliver a couple of things from my mothers estate, ans when he was here, he asked me why I wanted to move way out in the stick. I really didn't have an answer for him. I hadn't considered it seriously before.
About that time I went into a serious depressive tail spin, which ended with me sreiously considering whether my life was worth continuing. Sreious enough that I called the veterans hotline. Going through my regular primary care PhysiciannI was interviewed by by a head shrinker. His first question was "Have you experienced any trauma".
Boy howdy. I spent the next hour telling him tales of my experiences in the Psychiatric Depr, in the Army.
His diagnosis was that I had PTSD. I hadn't ever thought about my state of mind from that particular perspective. When I thought about it, it made total sense. I had constantly battled with depression m entire adult life, but I had never thought about PTSD.
So they started me on a new anti-depressant. I had tried about every one known to man with varying results, but none of them seemed to be of much help, or the side effects were too severe to use them for any length of time. The new stuff worked better than anything I had used before.
So let me go back and start from the beginning.
I was a consciencious objector. I had studied Far Eastern History in College, so I was one of the few people that understood the political history of Southest Asiaa. We had no business being involved in a struggle that had been going on fot thousands of years. There was no threat to the U.S., not any of our allies. I refused to be dragged into a position where I was legally required to follow orders I considered unethical. My status was put on hold while my case, along with a bunch of others was bumper up as far as the Supreme Court.
At that time the only people allowed 1AO status were people belonging to certain religious faiths. The Supreme Court decided that people with strong moral pronciples could also be 1AO.
I suppose i should explain what 1AO status means in the Army. It means that you agree to serve in the millitary, but refused to cary a weapon or egauge in battle. All 1AO servicemen in the Army went though a special Basic training at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, where when they completed basic training, they wnet on to Combat Medic training.
From the minute I was drafted, I was treated like crap by the Army. They didn't like anyone who was ddifferent that your standard mudsucker. Their standard perjorative was "maggot".
After basic training I got sent to Okinawa, with an MOS of Combat Medic. THere wasn't a lot of combat on Okinawa,but the Psychiatric Service was looking for an office flunky, so I got interviewed for office duty for he head shrinkers. All of my scores on the Army aptitude tests were off the scale, so they decided to take a chance on me.
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