My Dad Was Drafted in 1965. Why Did He Go Back?

My dad was drafted in 1965 and sent to Vietnam. The draft ended in 1973, and in 1975 he went back anyway. A Veterans Day story, and the family history behind it.

My dad was drafted into the Army in November 1965. He was twenty years old, and they sent him to Vietnam. He came home in 1967, and that could have been the end of his story.

The draft ended in 1973. Nobody could make him go back. In November 1975 he went back anyway. He stayed eighteen more years and retired on December 1, 1993, a Sergeant First Class, with about twenty years in uniform.

I have a photo of him from October 11, 1967, standing next to a Huey in Vietnam. He was twenty-two. I've looked at that picture my whole life, and I still can't picture myself at twenty-two doing what he did.

## He wasn't the first

This week I went digging through our family history for Veterans Day. My dad's father served in World War II.

Go back further and the Civil War split the Close family, on my dad's side, in half. Two brothers had left DeKalb County, Tennessee for Texas in 1852. One of them spent six years as a Texas Ranger, and both fought for the Confederacy. The brothers who stayed home in Tennessee fought for the Union. The roster of the 5th Tennessee Cavalry lists three of them: F. M. Close, a sergeant, J. G. Close, and T. N. Close, a corporal. T. N. is Thomas Newton Close, my third great-grandfather. When the war ended, he came home and bought 250 acres of his father's farm.

Before him there's Bradley Self, my fourth great-grandfather, born in North Carolina in 1753. In 1818, at sixty-five, he filed a pension declaration for his service in the Revolution, and he filed again in a Tennessee court in 1823 after his son moved him there.

## Selfless service

The Army lists seven values. One of them is selfless service. My family's had a lot of Selves who served, and there are Selves who'll keep answering that call.

Dad, thank you. And to every veteran out there, and every family that stood behind one, thank you.

Tony

The photos in the video are our family's. The painted history scenes are AI-generated illustrations, not pictures of the people named.

Sources:

• Self family history research report and family tree, 2011 (family records).

• 1890 Veterans Schedule, DeKalb County, Tennessee, listing Thomas N. Close: https://tngenweb.org/dekalb/1890-civil-war-veterans-census/

• Stokes' 5th Tennessee Cavalry (Union), DeKalb County roster, listing F. M., T. N. and J. G. Close: https://tngenweb.org/dekalbtn/cw/stokes.htm

• Selective Service System, history of the draft: https://www.sss.gov/history-and-records/

• U.S. Army values: https://www.army.mil/values/