*

Forty years ago today I was drafted into the U.S. Army. I remember coming home from my first day at my new job (bellhop at the San Carlos Hotel) to my little apartment on a hill overlooking the Monterey Bay, and finding a letter in the mailbox which read: "Greetings from the President of the United States." President Nixon then went on to tell me that I was soon to be a soldier, and specified the time and place where I was to report.


Before I knew it, I was in basic training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas (lower left.)


While so many others were fighting and dying in the war raging in Vietnam, I had the good fortune of serving almost two years at the Presidio of San Francisco as ordered.