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Ron Verini
Episode 2638 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about the one man who served and the two who ran away. The featured story came from the Argus Observer of Ontario, Oregon and was titled: Ron Verini: The Draft: Three stories, one nation. It was submitted by Ron Verini.
Ronald Verini is a local veteran’s advocate who writes a weekly column for The Argus Observer. He can be contacted at (541) 889-1978, help@veteranadvocates.org or 180 W. Idaho Ave., Ontario, OR 97914. The views and opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily represent those of The Argus Observer.
Verini started his story with this: Throughout the years I had the opportunity to interview some interesting individuals. Some have made the decision that military service was not for them. Here are two that decided the Vietnam War draft was not their cup of tea and what they thought of that decision today. My interest in talking with them was to find out how they perceived the Vietnam War and how they perceive things now and did they think they made a mistake.
Today I write about two men that did not serve and they both ended up with interesting stories and what they think now. I am sure you might know of someone that avoided the draft and the stories might also have some interesting twists to them.
This last story is about the last Active Duty, enlisted draftee retiring. I did not interview him but gathered his story from the website of www.veteranadvocates.org. Command Sergeant-Major Jeffrey Mellinger was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1972, during the Nixon/Vietnam era. He was, according to the Army records, was the last draftee remaining on active duty without a break in service after serving for nearly forty years.
Listen to episode 2638 and discover more about the one man who served and the two who ran away.
