<Begin Segment 18>

GN: And then when we were in the twelfth grade a whole group of us joined the California Air National Guard, 'cause you had to register when you were eighteen for the selective service system and when you graduate high school, if you don't have a college deferment, then you get drafted into the army. Or you could join the reserve or the National Guard, and so one of our, the guys in our club, had heard on the radio about Air National Guard and so a whole group of us joined. And the air base is in Van Nuys, so you had to go to a meeting twice a month on the same weekend, so it's a Saturday and Sunday, and then go to summer camp for two weeks.

SY: And you did all this.

GN: So I did that, yeah, for six years, and then you have an eight year obligation so you automatically become, since it's Air National Guard you automatically become a member of the Air Force reserve. But it's two years of inactive duty, so you're in it but you don't have to attend any meetings.

SY: But you do have to report. What did it involve other than...

GN: You didn't have to report, period.

SY: So you were just on --

GN: You could be called in for active duty.

SY: But you never were.

GN: No.

SY: I see. So that was sort of a way of avoiding the draft, which was, at the time it wasn't a big deal, though, was it?

GN: Oh yeah. You have a choice, you want to get drafted or be in the reserve National Guard.

SY: And was that, what, was there a war going on then?

GN: Not during the time...

SY: That you were in high school.

GN: High school, yeah.

SY: Okay.

GN: 'Cause we're the generation between the Korean War and the Vietnam War, so those who were maybe two years ahead of us in high school were...

SY: Had to be in the Korean War.

GN: Yeah, they got, they had to go to Korea for the Korean War. And then, and then those who were after us had the Vietnam.

SY: Right. Right, that was, that was a bad time. So how did it sort of end, your relationship in the gang? Was it just, does everybody still see each other after high school?

GN: We get together about once a year. And what happens is that right after high school when people start getting drafted, then it kind of breaks down. They, being organized as a group.

SY: So you didn't get to see each other very much.

GN: No, you didn't.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.