KIRSTEN SWANSON:
It's time again for Utah StoryCorps, everyday people sharing their stories at the StoryCorps recording booth in Logan.
MARY HEERS:
John Spencer retired from a career in the military. He came into the StoryCorps booth to tell us how his career began unexpectedly — with pingpong balls.
JOHN SPENCER:
I'm John Spencer, I'm being interviewed by my wife Chiq,
CHIQ SPENCER:
We were married in February 1971. It was right at the end of the Vietnam War. And we didn't even think about it until all of a sudden they said there was going to be a lottery for people who were born in 1952. And that was you.
JOHN SPENCER:
The mechanics of the lottery consisted of pingpong balls with a calendar date, matched up with random numbers from one to 365. And so that process involved two drums and the drum on the left, as we saw it on TV, had the calendar dates and the drum on the right had the ping pong balls. And when they started, the person would roll the drum and pull out a calendar date. And then the person on the right would roll the drum and pull out a random number. And those would match. The purpose of that was to assign a draft lottery number to everybody who was eligible for the draft.
CHIQ SPENCER:
So that was a really important date in my life, because we had a little baby by then, and I was worried about you leaving us. We went to watch the TV.
JOHN SPENCER:
We didn't have long to wait because my birthday was the first date drawn out of the drum. And the corresponding number that came out of the right drum was 30. And so at that point, our fate was sealed. I knew that I was going to be called up.
CHIQ SPENCER:
It's making me a little teary remembering, because that was so in your face that that just happened so fast, and then we knew our lives were going to be different from then on.
JOHN SPENCER:
And the very next day, or a couple of days later, the phone rang and it was the local recruiter, essentially his words to me were, "You know you're going. You might as well go army." And actually, the thought had crossed my mind that my dad had fought in World War II. And so I was very proud of his service. And I just felt like going army was the good thing for me to carry on.
CHIQ SPENCER:
So how how did you feel? Because you weren't sent to Vietnam.
JOHN SPENCER:
Well, no, but that was the question that was on everybody's mind, you know, "Will I or will I not be sent to Vietnam?" Two or three guys did get orders for Vietnam, but my friend Gary and I were both given permanent assignment orders back to Fort Ord. And Gary and I were just hugging each other do the Snoopy dance. We were just delighted.
And then I came up on assignment orders in '77. At that point, I had a year and a half left on my enlistment. I could either go unaccompanied for a year and a half, or I could extend my enlistment out to three years and take the family. So that's what I elected to do. So we packed up and went to Germany for three years.
CHIQ SPENCER:
And we chose to come here to USU.
JOHN SPENCER:
Right.
CHIQ SPENCER:
For you to get a master's degree. But at the same time, we needed the money for our family.
JOHN SPENCER:
At that point, we had like 12 years, I only had eight more to go to to get my 20 year retirement so I wanted to stick it out. So I looked for an artillery unit that I could join and there just happened to be one in Ogden, ultimately ended up retiring as a major in the artillery.
CHIQ SPENCER:
The military ended up being very good for us as a family.
JOHN SPENCER:
It affected my future by giving me a future — because at the time that I was invited, kicking and screaming, to join the military, I didn't know myself well enough to know which direction I wanted to go in terms of a career. I was really clueless. And the military came along just at a time when I needed something like that the most.
And I was glad when Gabe wanted to sign up for the military. It gave me a great deal of pride as an officer to raise my hand with him and swear him in and give him the oath of enlistment, carrying on a tradition that my father had started. So I guess I want my family to know that when the call came, I was willing to put myself in harm's way out of a sense of patriotism and loyalty.
MARY HEERS:
And this is Utah StoryCorps.
KIRSTEN SWANSON:
Thanks for coming along.
MARY HEERS:
See you next Friday. Same time —
KIRSTEN SWANSON: — same place.
Support for Logan StoryCorps comes from Cache County and from USU Credit Union, a division of Goldenwest.
