Ray Voith I joined Maryknoll at the Venard as a junior in September, 1959, graduating in June 1961. I went on to GE in September, 1961 and left Maryknoll in January 1964 after "seeing the light".

Note: Someone asked what I meant by "seeing the light". That was just my lame attempt at humor. Hank Williams wrote a song called "I saw the light" celebrating finding the Lord. One verse goes like this:

I saw the light I saw the light
No more darkness no more night
Now I'm so happy no sorrow in sight
Praise the Lord I saw the light.

Here is a link to that song.
[Click] I Saw the Light

For me, finding the light refers to me finding my new path in life after deciding to leave the seminary (the hardest decision of my life).

Very soon after, the draft board invited me to come for a visit in early spring, 1964.

The sarge indicated that we would all soon be in the service.

I had already applied to the University of Pittsburgh to study electrical engineering and was hoping for a deferment. I had yet to take the SAT. I passed the SAT and was accepted at Pitt. I got my deferment, maybe for several reasons (just guesses):
- the war had not yet escalated
- I was 20 and maybe a bit older than they wanted
- my draft board had a very large number of men to choose from.

In April of 1967, I graduated with a BS and had applied for graduate school. I was accepted at Pitt, Berkeley and MIT. I decided to go with Pitt although the other were two of the top schools. I felt I could get out with my PhD quicker at Pitt. This proved to be true. If I had chosen either of the other schools, I would have been in the middle of the protests in the late 60s. Who knows how different I might have become. As it was, Pitt was quieter than the other two places. In addition, I commuted, so was not much involved with campus activity.

In grad school I was on a straight through program to the PhD, skipping the Masters degree. In early 68 there was talk of them drafting first year grad students. I decided to do two things, in case I had to serve.
- I applied to officer candidate school
- I decided to do a thesis and get the Masters degree. I achieved that objective.

Well, again I received a deferment, so continued in grad school and did not have to serve.

Knowing myself, if I had been called up I would have served. Needless to say, I was happy to get the deferment.

In those days and until recently I was never much of a social activist, and also was not in an environment where I was exposed to other young people who were seeing more clearly than I, what was going on and what the war was about. Others were seeing those things that are portrayed in the Burns PBS special much clearer than I did.

I certainly did not like LBJ. When at GE, a fellow student introduced me to Goldwater's "Conscience of a Conservative". In my very first presidential election I voted for Goldwater. Johnson campaigned saying that Goldwater would drop A-bombs if elected. (Who knows, maybe Goldwater would have been a hawk on the war and maybe would have used the A-bomb).

But then Johnson, as I saw it, got us entangled in a war where we had nearly 58000 Americans killed. Although he likely saw how futile the war might be, he worried about getting elected rather than what might be the sensible thing to do.

This is one reason why I never (until recently) voted for the Democratic presidential candidate. Of course the other reason is the thoughtless acceptance of my parents' political views. They never pushed those views on me directly. Neither of my parents ever strongly stated their political views. They were too busy bringing up the six of us (I have an older brother and four younger sisters).

I'm now sitting here trying to remember exactly what my views were back then. I do remember the Smothers Brothers and their show which was critical of the war and sympathetic to the anti war movement. That show resonated with me. I enjoyed Pat Paulson's run for president on their show. His sketch was satire and comedy but made a point.

I'm thinking that I was happy to see Nixon's winning the presidency. (He wasn't a democrat). Too bad he also prolonged the war for political reasons.

Fairly recently I gained some perspective on the experiences of our men in the war when I read a friend's account of his experiences as a rifleman in Vietnam. ([Click] Ray Gleason). It gave me about as close a view of what went on without actually being there.

The Burns series was an eye opener. Having watched it, it occurred to me that it would be of interest to hear about others' experiences related to the war. Hence this new section on my website.