Dodgers

I never have had a problem with those who dodged the draft, as long as they weren’t hypocrites about it (see Ted Nugent). As an act of resistance, it appealed to my inner anarchist.

Having said that, I myself chose not to dodge—despite opposing both the Vietnam War and mandatory military service—but registered as a conscientious objector and did my alternative service, working with kids in migrant camps. That ultimately proved almost as dangerous: I contracted Hepatitis B that nearly killed me.

I do not regret the choice. Nor would I, had I made a different one. This happens and that doesn’t and we move on. All of this, to sure, has given me material for my writing. Most notably, for the character Ted ‘Shaper’ Carrol, to whom I have assigned some of my own experiences as backstory. Ted most certainly is not ‘me’ but he comes closer than most of my characters.

The military draft was a very real concern when I was coming of age in the Sixties. That has shown up in the two ‘Women in the Sun’ novels (written under the Sienna Santerre pen name); at the time it is set, young men were still being sent off to the hopeless conflict in Vietnam and many didn’t return. That concern underlies much of the narrative, always a presence in my characters’ seemingly carefree lives of romance and beach-going.

It is not a concern I would wish on anyone. How each of us dealt with it was up to us; again, we made choices and should not regret them—much less attempt to deny we made them. But I think it was a choice no one should need have made.

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Incidentally, those novels I mentioned remain available as free ebooks (or may be purchased in print) at Arachis Press (arachispress.com).