Friendly Fire by C. D. B.; Bryan

their induction orders changed, revoked or ignored. Michael Mullen spent the day reading about young men who had had themselves certified physically or psychologically unfit for the military, who had fled the country rather than serve. He read about young men who did not for one instant believe it was their patriotic duty—or any of their country’s business—to fight a war halfway around the world in Vietnam, who had burned their draft cards, been arrested in campus demonstrations, who had gone to jail, done everything in their power to escape the draft and show their opposition to the war. He filed paper after paper on young men who had not been pulled away from their studies, who had never even attended college, much less a graduate school, but who had still found ways to beat the draft. All day long Michael Mullen read about young men unlike himself.
    At first he was angry and resentful of them, then furious with himself, and finally, inevitably, depressed. That night Michael telephoned his mother back at the farm and told her, “The whole setup is corrupt! I don’t need to be here!” Over and over again, as if in disbelief, he repeated, “I don’t need to be here! I don’t need to be here! I simply didn’t need to be drafted!”
    The next morning Michael was flown to Fort Polk and began basic training. On December 3, 1968, he was ordered to “forfeit $26.00 a month for the period of one month” because, “having knowledge of a lawful order issued by Captain Joseph P. Holles, Jr., your Commanding Officer, to keep all personal valuables secured, an order which it was your duty to obey, you did fail to obey same.” Michael had left his wallet on his bunk.
    Michael spent his Christmas pass with Caroline and her mother, then returned to Fort Polk to complete his basic training. While there he applied for Noncommissioned Officers School. By so doing, he hoped to forestall being immediately sent to Vietnam. His application was accepted, and Michael received orders to attend the NCO school at Fort Benning, Georgia. He made sergeant (E-5) at Benning and was sent next to Fort McClellan, Alabama, for advanced infantry training (AIT). Michael had been able to delay his Vietnam orders for six additional months, but when he completed AIT, his time ran out. His gamble that the war would wind down before his additional training would end had failed. The Army now needed noncommissioned officers in Vietnam more than ever. At McClellan, Michael again was ordered to Vietnam.
    Michael applied for and was granted twenty-three days’ advance leave prior to reporting to Fort Lewis, Washington, for transshipment overseas. He decided to spent his entire leave at home in Iowa and arrived at the farm on August 10, 1969.
    Peg Mullen had expected Caroline to visit for at least part of Michael’s leave. She had written the girl over Christmas, inviting her to the farm. A letter addressed to Caroline, in care of the Mullens, had been waiting on the kitchen table, but Michael wasn’t saying whether she was coming or not. Finally, after four days of not knowing, Peg could not remain silent any longer and asked Michael, “Isn’t Caroline coming?”
    â€œNo,” he said. “She’s in the West this summer with her father.”
    And that’s all he would say. He did not mention Caroline again. However, Peg could not help noticing that Michael spent two whole afternoons writing Caroline and that he never received an answer.
    There were then 534,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam fighting a war which had dragged on for almost nine years and which had already cost the lives of more than 38,000 American men. During that first week of leave, while Michael was out fixing fences, clearing brush, painting, and doing general cleanup work around the family farm, 244 U.S. soldiers were killed and 1,409 were wounded.
    On his last day of leave Michael planted two small evergreens next