Mellen Thomas-Benedict - EFTBooks.com

Mellen-Thomas Benedict’s Near-Death Experienceyour family and make peace with the world, I thought, thisguy doesn’t have a clue, because he doesn’t know what mylife’s been like.I’m someone who was raised in a military family. I wasraised to serve my country, and my father was a greenberet, highly decorated in Vietnam and the whole thing.When I got out of high school, it was at the peak of thewar—you were given your 1A draft with your diploma. SoI was drafted immediately upon graduation. My father wasactually serving in Vietnam at the time.I wasn’t in favour of the war at all. I wasn’t in favour of thepolicy, I wasn’t in favour of anything that we were doingover there. But my father was a good soldier and always didwhat he was ordered to do. So when I got the draft, I hadthe funniest thoughts.I kept thinking, I am going to be ordered to go kill people,that I don’t want to kill, and that really bothered me.My thought was, this may bethe only time in my entire life thatI have to face who I really am.I decided to resist the war. I decided not to leave my country.I wasn’t going to leave my country because I believe thecountry need all kinds of patriots, including those who won’tgo and kill for silly policies.© Mellen-Thomas Benedict 2008 • 10 • & Angela Treat Lyon 2008Mellen-Thomas.com • All rights reserved • Protected Internationally • EFTBooks.com