Perhaps 80 percent were “draft-motivated”—they joined to avoid Vietnam. Most resented kids who had the means and wherewithal to get out of the draft via the far more pleasant route of the student deferment. Others had done tours in Vietnam—and saw these marauding students as rearguard allies of the same enemy that had scattered their buddies’ body parts. Commanders tried to keep these guys off the Kent front lines. They didn’t want berserk Vietnam vets with live weapons anywhere near protesters. The units were a little like the troops of Charlie Company in Quang Ngai province: battle weary
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