<Begin Segment 27>

AI: So you had volunteered to go to Vietnam while you were in Korea.

RS: Right, I volunteered to go to Vietnam because of the money, because of the battle pay. And it was at a time when, what were they called? Advisors, they were still called advisors. And then I found out it was an eighteen-month tour and I was only have to be in Korea for thirteen months, and so I decided not to do it. But without ever thinking about what the war was about or anything else -- that was all tied in with this whole "Bomb Hanoi" and all that, and I was in the military and that made perfect sense to me. And that's where my head was at, getting into fights, beating up people, all of that stuff. It all sort of tied into this neat package that yeah, we want Barry Goldwater.

AI: So, by 1964 then, you were, actually you were discharged then, in 1964?

RS: Right, right. I was discharged. I voted for Goldwater, but JFK won. Or, no.

AI: Or, Johnson?

RS: Johnson, right. So, I think that was sort of the, the low point, or the high point, you know, of my sort of political, opposite, and then things started turning for me. And I actually started growing up and developing some consciousness, and starting to put together pieces of my life, little by little. But it wasn't until I got to Kansas that things really turned around for me in a series of rather dramatic events.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.