Before the American military draft was overturned in 1973, nearly 2.2 million Americans between the ages of 18-25 were pulled for service, including baby-faced 20-year-old, Mike Allen.
Nicknamed the “little kid” by the Vietnamese, Allen’s fellow soldiers suspected he shouldn’t be deployed because of his apparent age. But he’d simply reply: “My government says I do.”
Assigned to an Army swing battalion, Allen’s unit would rapidly deploy to the most dangerous areas at a moment’s notice, so he saw a lot of action.
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Weighing in at approximately 120 pounds, Allen said in an interview he had to carry a grocery list of munitions like Claymore mines, trip flares, hand fragmentation grenades and at least 2,000 rounds of M60 ammo, just to name a few.
With all that gear strapped to his back, Mike humorously said, “you didn’t want to run short in case you hit the sh-t.”
Like most grunts, Mike had to live in the hot and muggy jungles and wore his first set of clothes for roughly 80 days, with only four 0r five changes to last during the deployment.
Allen earned an Air Medal for surviving at least 25 operational flights into unsecured landing zones.
“You were scared but you couldn’t feel scared because it would overtake you,” Mike said. “You know they’re watching you, and you try to keep your distance.”
Also Read: That time CBS captured an intense firefight in Vietnam
Check out Wisconsin Public Television‘s video below to watch Mike Allen’s patriotic story of what life was like for the “little kid” of Vietnam.
(Wisconsin Public Television, YouTube)Fun Fact: According to the National Archives, 27 million American men were eligible for service and only 2.2 million were drafted between 1964 and 1973. That is all.