I’m interested in understanding compulsory military service, an experience so very different from my own, so I recently spoke with former Army Sgt. Cliff Cahoon, who was drafted during the Vietnam War. The conversation has given me much to contemplate.

Cliff graduated from Ingraham High School in Seattle in 1967. The Vietnam War was raging hot. Cahoon wanted to enlist, but promised his mother he would instead take his chances with the draft.