Fugitives of Injustice: The Biographical True Story of Two Brothers' Exemption, Induction, Suspention, Investigation, Escape and Presidential Pardon from the US Army Draft
William Eliot D
Copyright © 2011 by William Eliot D
Smashwords Edition
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I have tried to recreate events, locales and facts. In order to maintain anonymity, I have changed the names of individuals and removed specific names of places. I may have changed some identifying characteristics and details such as physical properties, and places of residence. Furthermore, the author has used a pseudonym
Cover Illustration Copyright © 2011 by William Eliot D.
Content Contributors: Margaret, Matthew and Sean Douglas
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Chapter 1
University Students Exempt From The Draft - Or Are They?
Matthew, a draft resister, grew up in several towns and cities outside New York City - New Rochelle and White Plains being the main ones. These would be the places his family called home for the longest period of time, even though they moved more than six times to a variety of working class neighbourhoods. Matthew’s father had a steady job at a large electric company, but with four children living on a single income, they were forced to move.
Of the four children, Matthew and his sister Suzy (the oldest) would find an interest in scholastics and a desire to enter university as a way to find a better life, like so many other baby-boomers. But Matthew didn’t have an inherent love of school in the earlier years like his older sister. In fact, Suzy would have to drag him by his ear just to get him to school on certain mornings.
No member of Matthew’s family had received more than a high school education. So Matthew drifted from practical to commercial courses without any direction. Only by luck, when Matthew’s family had moved to the fringes of an area of Westchester where more affluent people lived, did Matthew discover from the students in his high school that college was even possible.
Suzy, on the other hand, had a passion for learning and scored straight A grades throughout her school years up until high school graduation. She won a partial scholarship and her teachers encouraged her parents to send her to college, but in the later part of the 1950’s, Suzy’s father didn’t have the funds to send her to college. Also, Suzy’s father and many of his generation expected their daughters to go to work to help provide for the family. The family traditions, then, for working class Irish Americans were that daughters weren’t suppose to go to college. In short, without financial support from the family or state, Suzy went to work for a phone company in New York City doing the grave yard shift connecting calls the old fashioned way (like you see in those black and white movies in the 1940s) which was to plug phone cables into the switch board. This was a reality far from her ideal place - university. Her hopes would be dashed for many years that followed.
However, in the end, Suzy would accomplish great things - becoming a regional manager, and even going to college while working. She continued after an early retirement thanks to a lucrative, golden handshake - a testimony to her intelligence and success – and thanks to the incredible opportunities available in the US graduated as a mature student.
But Matthew, despite not having the natural desire for obtaining top marks in his earlier years, would head to university to make a better life for himself and escape the hardships of his home environment. His parents drank, and then argued and fought on more than one occasion! Matthew approached university age four years after Suzy. High school graduates nationwide started seeing scholarships and student loans made readily available and easily obtainable as the baby boomer generation headed to higher education en masse.
Although Matthew didn’t excel in his high school courses, he did develop a love for literature, which eventually would give him a clear path for his studies in university. This love all started one warm summer Saturday during his teen years. On this day, his father, who loved literature but had no formal background in it, handed his son a copy of Jack London’s Call of the Wild. For many reasons, which included the enjoyment of his father taking interest in him, plus the wonderful adventures and life’s lessons that fiction offers, a lifelong passion would be ignited and literature would become a natural fit after Matthew entered college. Because his high school grades were average, he had to start as a basic business student but the passion for literature took over, and he soon switched his major to liberal arts. He would take his literature studies all the way to completing his Ph.D. But there would be a major bump in the road. He’d be forced to cancel his university studies, and he’d have to get his university schooling (M.A. and PHD) in Canada because Matthew would be a victim of the draft.
In the early years of the Vietnam War, young men were certain that the draft represented a call from their US government to serve and protect America from WWII style, villainous enemies. A young man who was drafted had little time to ponder or question the draft notice, which was received in the mail. The drafting process moved quickly and draftees would soon pack their bag, head to the local draft board office to be sworn-in and then be shipped off to a basic training camp for six to eight weeks. A contract (of sorts) would be signed shortly after, which made the transfer official and the draftees would be inducted into the American Armed Forces. Then it was off to battle. But most importantly, receiving a draft notice was like being blind-sided because little information was made public about the war, the draft, or anything else until a man opened up a draft notice from the mailbox. Draft notices might as well as have been delivered in envelopes with “surprise!” written on them. Men with certain medical conditions could seek to be exempt from the draft. Matthew’s older brother was exempted because of an eye condition. That left Matthew and his younger brother eligible for the draft.
Matthew was as unlikely to receive a draft notice as his underage, younger high school brother was. Matthew was a full-time university student at a college in New York (now a University) and as a full-time student, he was ineligible for the draft.
Matthew enjoyed his classes and enrolled in after-school clubs, which opened up this shy, 18 year old to social opportunities never previously experienced. A young woman from Brooklyn, named Margaret, would be invited to a club meeting to help fill empty chairs for the club’s annual yearbook photo. This chance meeting would prove to be important. Matthew and Margaret would become school friends, and later enjoy dating. But Margaret would play a much larger role than an ordinary girlfriend. Soon, she would suggest a radical sounding idea that would save his life.
The college’s bustling campus is in the heart of lower Manhattan. As a Business College, which soon turned into a more comprehensive university, it drew students not only from downtown, but also from the multitude of surrounding boroughs and cities. The campus itself consisted of a group of students who commuted to and from school every day - not closely knit groups like an Ivy League school with scenic, residential campuses. It had just one city campus building at that time and the student experience was rather impersonal - students on campus were like commuters passing each other in a busy train station. For the most part, the relationship between students and faculty was formal. Since many students were the first members of their families to attend college, professors were viewed with respect and sometimes with awe. After Matthew graduated, he began his Master’s Degree in Literature at a branch of the City University of New York. By this time, Matthew and Margaret had grown close emotionally and were engaged.
Not long into Matthew’s first semester as a graduate, he made an appointment with a counsellor to discuss the course load he was carrying. Matthew was concerned that the workload for graduate courses would be too difficult since the reading lists for each literature course was extensive. He sought the counsellor’s advice. The counsellor politely suggested that he could drop one course. The counsellor did not tell Matthew that such an act would make him eligible for the draft; perhaps he didn’t know. The meeting finished, and several days later Matthew followed the advice given to him and officially dropped an elective course, which caused him to become a part time student. One month later, he received his draft notice. As it turned out, part-time students were eligible for the draft. The school counsellor’s advice set the stage for what would ultimately transpire. Near the college, Matthew shared an apartment with Norris, a fellow student, to avoid long commutes to New Rochelle. They were both shocked by Matthew’s draft notice. Norris’ father was a medical doctor and years later the son revealed how his father “doctored” Norris’ x-rays so that his son was exempted from the draft. But Matthew never asked his roommate to have his father help in creating false documents for himself. Nor did Norris offer such help. Instead, Matthew was resigned to the fate that awaited him. He prepared to go to fight as a soldier in Vietnam.