Dear Next Generation: An Incident During Basic Training

Dear Next Generation: An Incident During Basic Training
Dear Next Generation, an advice column from readers to young people. Photo by Shutterstock
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As a subscriber to The Epoch Times, I read with interest your published letters from readers offering their advice or experiences to the younger generation. It brought back an incident that I was involved in during basic training, July 1966, at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, that may be of interest to your readers.

With the Vietnam War raging, I put myself in a position to get drafted by dropping out of college in order to save my country against the spread of communism throughout Southeast Asia. Playing cards over a blanket-covered footlocker wearing just my skivvies and my dog tags, I noticed a fellow recruit staring at my dog tags. At that time the religion of the soldier was stamped into the dog tag along with the name, serial number, and blood type. Jewish was stamped on my dog tags.