It was half-time at the Rose Bowl and the Fightin’ Hoosiers still had a chance to beat USC (OJ Who?). I was in graduate school working for the athletic department and spotting (you can’t know the players without a spotter) down on the field for the NBC cameras. One of my very best friends had chosen to do his active duty in the Army before getting his advanced degree. I, as I’ve said before in these pages, opted to finish school first because I didn’t think I would want to go back after the service. As I was walking toward the dressing room, I heard my name called and it was my friend’s brother who was producer of the Nightly News and working on the Rose Bowl Special for NBC. It was good to see him. He was part of a very close family and I knew he would have news of my friend’s tour. “Art’s been wounded,” he said. My heart sank. “How badly?” “It was a mortar attack but he’s going to be alright.” “I’m so relieved,” I said. “Art will be coming home,” he told me.
This was the first time it really registered in my mind that we were fighting a war in Vietnam that had very personal consequences. Sadly, I lost many friends to that war but my close friend Art made it. We spent a lot of time together during his recuperation at Walter Reed Hospital in DC where I was living and eventually working on Capitol Hill. We talked endlessly about our lives and where we were headed as we confronted our future. I have to say that there is a bond that forms in these highly stressful situations that is very strong and long lasting.
We didn’t beat OJ in the Rose Bowl but made a very respectable showing, losing 14-3, on the only trip the school has made there since that day. I left Pasadena the next day for an interview with United Airlines in Denver. After I got my masters degree, I didn’t take that job but went to work on Capitol Hill for John Gardner and Bill Ruckelshaus, among others. A short few months later, I received my orders to report to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for gunnery school in the Field Artillery. I signed in on the Fourth of July with my new wife, Jane, in tow after being married just six days earlier in DC.
I come from a military family. My father was a career officer in the Army. His branch was Field Artillery as well. I think the word “brat” is bit harsh but still growing up on military posts does give you a different view of the world. I never considered NOT serving my tour. I spent a lot of time away from Jane and, I guess, I began the travel that has become second nature in my professional career. I was working on secret weapons projects for the war that took me many places that I shouldn’t have been. The Army kept me in a few months longer than my tour was scheduled for because one of those projects was finishing up.
Being in the Army during an unpopular war is character building. We’re right back in that place again. Today we seem to have gained a new respect for our troops which is heartening to me. I like the word “patriot”. The definition is one who loves, supports and defends one’s country. I can live with that. We are very fortunate to live in a remarkable experiment called democracy. I’m proud to be a patriot and a veteran. I’m proud of all those who are serving in the military today. The Army is even more important than it has ever been. The Middle East is a scary place for Americans. I have great respect for the troops who are there now. My father, a veteran of two wars, would be proud of them too, God rest his soul. I’m thinking of him and my friend Art and those we lost to war. We’ve got to stop the fighting.
