The Brown Brothers
Stat by jrd on 6/28/17.

The United States of America, good old USA, just like people, is not perfect. For the record, none of us are perfect, just some people are more perfect than others. Our country has to be governed by people and as just stated, people are not perfect, thus mistakes will be made in all forms of government. In this day and time, our country is being protected by the greatest Armed Forces that has ever existed and all of the military personnel are strictly volunteers. Young men are required to register for the draft, but for the last several years, no one has been drafted. When mere mortals, serving on the Draft Board, have to select soldiers from a registered list of young men, fairness is considered, but impossible to govern by. Rules and regulations are followed and a certain group of young men are selected and another group of young men get to stay home. Impossible to please most that are concerned and affected by their selection. Regardless, in March of 1971 Billy Brown was married and was drafted. Some other young men, that were not married, right or wrong, were not drafted. Those were just the rules at that time. None-the-less, Billy Brown reported to the draft board and was inducted into the Army. There was a war going on in Vietnam and teenager boys were called to serve their country and Billy was called and sent to Fort Knox for Basic Training and then to Fort Rucker for his AIT Training. He was selected to go to school to learn how to repair "Attack Helicopters." After graduation from tech school, most of the Attack Helicopters were located in Vietnam, so Billy was sent to Vietnam and to where he was needed.

Meanwhile, Billy's brother Bucky had been in service for several years and was on his way of becoming a career soldier. Bucky had served one tour in Vietnam and seemed to be enjoying military life. Bucky did get upset when Billy was drafted and thought his married brother should not be sent to Vietnam. Bucky volunteered for another tour in Vietnam, thinking that would allow Billy to serve his tour of duty stateside and not be sent to Vietnam. By then the wheels were in motion and guess once rolling, it takes time to get them stopped. I am not aware of any rules or laws that prohibits two brothers from serving in a particular war zone in the same time frame, especially if there is a brother or brothers back home. Yes, Billy was sent to Vietnam and just a few weeks later, Bucky was also sent. It did not seem fair that two brothers should be serving in Viet Nam at the same time, but most all agree that sometimes life is not fair. Bucky and Billy's mother, Cora Mae, started a campaign to get one of both back home and was eventually successful, but not before Billy served almost a year in that war torn country. Finally going all of the way to the top of he ladder, Cora Mae corresponded with the then president, Richard M. Nixon and after many letter exchanges, and almost a year later, Bill was sent back stateside.

Thanks, you two brothers for serving our country honorably and successfully.

See you.........
jrd