minorities in the military
In the year 1965, the United States sent troops to Vietnam to aid the South Vietnamese against the communist Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese. As the fighting increased, the United States was in need of more troops in order to support its commitment to South Vietnam. Therefore, thousands of Selective Service registers were called and drafted. The United States also asked its closes ally the Philippines to help send troops to South Vietnam and in addition this, the United states requested for an increase of recruitment for the United States Navy in the region. Thus, the U.S. enlisted thousands of Philippine natives, including myself. My involvement started in July of 1968, when I was flown to the United States beginning my military training in San Diego. Recalling the eight weeks of hard, intensive training, I still considered myself fortunate to be enlisted in the United States Navy. Although, when I did graduate boot camp, I cherished the prize of rest and recreation for 72 hours. My short-lived vacation began with a group of my fellow Filipino recruits. We decided to catch a bus to downtown San Diego. As we boarded the bus, I stopped in confusion when I noticed a sign with "Black" written at the back section of the b
As our company gathered for the last day, we waited for our next order of job training. I was wondering why Filipino recruits and few African American were separated. Having the same order to attend SD "A" school (Steward), we are not aware that our General Classification Test was high enough to be qualified in other ratings. This discrimination was puzzling to me since, the Americans I knew back in the Philippines were good people and America itself is known to be the land of opportunity. Despite this slight discrimination, I had accepted my rate and still considered American as good people of good will. After our first six months in Vietnam, we were sent back in the States. My plan was to escape such slave-like job. So, I enrolled in Long Beach City College to further my education and hoped that someday the U S Navy will change its policy toward Filipino servicemen regarding their job assignments. It was my third month in school when all Navy ships in the Long Beach area were in the state of emergency and pulled out enroute to the Token Gulf. Our ship, powered by nuclear reactor, arrived in Vietnam in eighth days two days ahead of the rest of the conventional ships. Our Navy had deployed mines surrounding the Russian supply ship in the Vietnam port. President Nixon declared an ultimatum address to the Russians to leave the harbor in 24 hours or our Navy would activate the mines. So the Russian was scared off and left peacefully. Since our ship had a nuclear powered reactor, it was extended to stay in the gulf for ninety days. The days were long boring where the only entertainment was at night, viewing the bombing fireworks above the land of Vietnam. Admiral Rickover, founder of the nuclear Reactor, had asked additional stewards to help his staff. My division officer had chosen me to work with the admiral's staff while they were onboard. At the end of our ninety days, I was content and rich receiving a three-month co
Some common words found in the essay are:
Americans Philippines, San Diego, Black Americans, United Navy, Admiral Rickover, Continental United, President Nixon, Navy Engineman, Token Gulf, City College, united navy, allowed races assigned, filipino recruits, ninety days, nuclear reactor, division officer, san diego, south vietnam, days days, change job, races assigned,
Approximate Word count = 1316
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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