NEXT WAR, DRAFT THE OLD GUYS FIRST

© 2000 James David Pearce

Clem's granddaddy Isaac was in the Civil War, in both armies.

He joined the 17th NC volunteers CSA in the summer of 1861, served honorably for almost two years, then deserted and stayed back in the swamps for a couple of months.

On Christmas Day 1863 he joined the 2nd NC volunteers USA, and served honorably until discharged in June 1865.

Isaac lived to be a real old man, and during his lifetime, there were a lot more wars. He lived to see sons in the Indian and Spanish-American wars, and grandsons in WWI. He didn't live to see it, but he had grandsons and great-grandsons in WWII, great-grandsons and great-great-grandsons in the Korean and Vietnam wars.

~~~
Isaac Pierce

Isaac complained and griped a lot, but he was a smart man. When he was a young fellow in an area and era of 80% illiteracy, he could read and write with a flourish.

As he aged, he developed a philosophy about war ~ any war.

Always a rich man's war, a poor man's fight, Isaac said.

Clem was one of Isaac's more fortunate grandchildren, born a little too late for the Germans to kill, and saved from the Japanese by the atomic bomb. With the Hertford County draft board breathing on his neck, Clem sought haven in the Seabees at 17, just a few months before Hiroshima, and was released from the active roll at 19. This little bit of non-violent teenage military endeavor allowed him to avoid the draft in subsequent wars.

~~~
At left, Teeny Mizelle of Colerain, WWII

The draft always bothered Clem psychologically, however, so like his granddaddy, he developed his own philosophy about war. Any war.

~

Old man's war, young man's fight, Clem said.

Clem began to realize that as he was growing older and less likely to ever have to fear the draft again, he was beginning to become more militant in his own views toward the rest of the world.

Thinking back to when he was 17, Clem realized that was the problem.

The draft was backwards.

When both big and little wars were going on, the older fellows in charge drafted the young fellows from 18 to 27 (once in a while up to 35), and marched them out to be killed or maimed.

Clem figured those kids had never really had a chance. Their entire lives were before them. They needed to go to school. They needed to get jobs, get married, have kids. They'd never had any opportunity to enjoy life. They shouldn't be drafted.

Instead, why not draft all the non-veterans aged 40 to 59, figured Clem.

Most men that age are smart, tough as nails, and generally mean as snakes. They could whip the world.

Clem's solution was to propose that in the next Big One, let the young fellows stay back, go to school, raise families ~ have a chance to live.

Take the older boys who never fought ~ the tough guys, the know-it-alls, the have-it-alls ~ those fellows from 40 to 59 ~ let them hit the beaches and catch hell. They hadn't missed anything in life. They'd had their chances.

Next time, instead of having a draft age from 18 to 35, said Clem, draft the old guys first.

Of course, it has to be noted that Clem waited a while ~ until he was well into his doddering sixties, as a matter of fact ~ before he pressed this issue very hard.

~~~
George Stuckey Leonhirth,
a 1920s volunteer,
US Army

George S. Leonhirth pulled two four-year hitches in the US Army during the 1920s. Following his Army service, he worked as a power-company lineman and later served as a police officer in several small Northeastern NC towns. He came to Ahoskie as a policeman in the late 1940s, but soon was hired as police chief by the Town of Aulander, where he served until he was old enough to retire. He also operated a small oyster bar outside Aulander on the Poor Town Road, and kept a large German Shepherd police dog which ~ riding shotgun in the front seat of the town patrol car ~ helped him keep things calm while transporting reluctant and unruly detainees.