My Vietnam War Experience-- Part 3: Much Anti-War Feelin at NIU

OK, so now I am out of Palatine High School and a freshman at Northern Illinois University.  This is fall 1969 and the war in Vietnam is escalating.  It was a subject of discussion at high school, but now, on campus, this was a really big deal.

We had those opposed to the war and those for it.  Of course, the draft loomed high and wide over every boy's future.  Flunk out of college and go to Vietnam.  That is a horrible punishment for failing at school.

We had anti-war marches and one time the marchers went past Lincoln Hall, my dormitory and someone was carrying a North Vietnamese flag.  This was too much for some of my floormates, protest the war, but never ever fly the enemy flag.   Several members of our floor,  Lincoln Hall 3A at NIU, we called ourselves the Keggers, charged outside, grabbed the flag and ran back to the dorm floor.  Some of the protesters followed until they saw a lot of us standing in their way.

They beat a hasty retreat.

I will continue this next month.

Not the Best of Times.  --RoadDog