Part 6… It Happens!

The black cloud of war hung over us as we drove home from the draft board encounter. I struggled to understand the coldness and lack of compassion in our treatment. We avoided the news and tried to not think about it. Our future was not in our hands.

The letter came: Order to Report for Induction. There was a sense of relief that it was happening. It was settled. We would go forward as best we could.

Life speeded up as he would have a physical and if he passed the physical he would immediately be sent for basic training. Boyd was the type of man that accepted his plight and went to serve his country. He would go if he must, that was what an American did.

After his physical he called to tell me he was being sent to Fort Leonard Wood, MO. I was thrilled that the base was a four- hour drive from our home. When he got a weekend pass, I was in my Mustang on my way to see him. In the 1960s, St. Louis was known as a rough, crime-filled city with no interstate roads. Driving alone through St. Louis did not scare me. I was on my way to see my man.

This period was surreal. Six months ago we were parents, living our happy life and here we were in Rolla, MO. Boyd in the army and life looking very scary. Rolla was a college town near the base. They had a little old fashioned hotel where we would get a room still numb with grief and disbelief at our future. Always happy to be together.

In typical army fashion, they offered an extra weekend pass, if the recruits did well on a shooting challenge. It was Boyd’s nature to do his best and he qualified for his weekend pass. He also got sent for Infantry training in Fort Polk, Louisiana immediately following his basic training. We were not naive. He was destined to be sent to Vietnam.