in this week’s edition of vietnam reflections we talked to george uribe from watkins glen george served in the u.s army’s transportation corps here’s what he had to say about serving his country and about his time in vietnam [Music] so [Music] i got drafted out of college and i ended up going to fort jackson for basic training and then to fort uh jackson for advanced training when we were running convoys we were pretty much like uh it was either shooting galleries where they had ducks going in a row well the convoy looks a lot like ducks because they usually get attacked on a regular basis and you said you got drafted yes um when you got that draft letter in the mail what went through your mind i’m going to vietnam it was pretty much that’s what they were doing they were just drafting people we were in the group that went from the hundred thousand troops in vietnam to the 400 000 troops in vietnam so that’s we knew almost everybody they were taking in you know as a matter of fact some of the physicals i was watching when i was at whitehole street in new york city was that person barely looked like he’s breathing but he passed yeah so that’s how they got i guess enough people to get numbers increased well there was a like an unwritten law that the the we had the roads from six o’clock in the morning till six o’clock at night and the vietcong had the roads from six o’clock at night to six o’clock in the morning well one time we were out on a convoy and we got back late so we didn’t think anything of it the next morning we go out there and there’s a crew of uh koreans and they’re going out there with mine sleepers so we said what’s you know what’s going on well it seems like because we delayed them from going on the roads they decided to delay us the next day and uh shine seven mines in the road including one that they exploded to show us that what they were doing um how how would you say serving in vietnam changed you after you came home vietnam changed everybody that went over there not just a little bit a lot uh i had lost my sense of humor i could tell you that and it was just the the stuff i used to see on a regular basis i used to say to myself thank god the rest of my family don’t have to see this you know just one of us and it was a terrible thing and what makes you proud now to be a vietnam veteran well i feel that everybody if they want to live in a free country should serve if they are able to i mean if they’re not able to you know that’s different but if they are they should keep the fact that we have our freedom and uh it seems though we get mixed up with the wrong kind of war for instance in vietnam the affluent class could buy their sons out of being serving in the service so we would drive through a town now we’ve got helmets on flak jackets sandbagging on our trucks and everything and they’re standing on a corner laughing at us because here’s the stupid americans going to fight for us and we don’t have to get involved so that was another thing that bothered me about that but i know i do felt that i did my service for relaxotech vape supplies my country and i’m i’m glad i made it home which a lot of guys on that wall didn’t make it so i feel very very bad about that