FOR AWHILE, BACK IN THE SIXTIES, I attended a small, land grant college with mandatory Army artillery ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps). I was so resistive to the regimentation that I nearly flunked out. “You will be forward observers in Vietnam,” one trainer told us, “with a life expectancy of about 23 minutes.” Encouraged by that bit of news, I left school and, instead, almost died on a civilian operating table instead, earning a 4-F selective service rating with an ileostomy. I was vociferously opposed to the Vietnam War, much to the chagrin of some of my more conservative classmates, as well as my own family members. “You’re a communist,” sneered my mother, who wouldn’t have known a communist if she’d read Marx instead of playing canasta. Even today, I have to laugh when I see Republican politicians calling Democrats communists, a term they stupidly equate with being a liberal. John Kenneth Galbraith knew about these things: “Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it’s just the opposite.” In any event, ROTC was a military feeder, dressing gung-ho college kids up in spiffy uniforms to later become second lieutenants in the armed forces. I found the uniforms totally obnoxious, the heavy wool outfits, the dumb cap, the upper-class officer assholes giving me demerits because my brass wasn’t shiny enough or my hair wasn’t sufficiently trimmed to military specifications. In the end, the ileostomy saved me from the short life expectancy of Vietnam service, my mother figured out that I wasn’t a nasty communist, and instead of my name being carved into the Vietnam Wall, I get to look at it when I visit Washington, and cry.

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Caz67
Well it's just coming upto a year since I had my emergency stoma. Since joining MAOM I have learnt all different kinds of ideas to help with the stoma. Not only that I have made a lot of good friends who I can talk to. The beauty of this site is it's not just giving tips and ideas we talk about anything and everything. So thank you for giving us a great site. XX