PORT ANGELES — A conversation with Tony Cook probably begins with “Why?” but eventually may change to “Well, why not?”
Cook, a Vietnam vet, wants recognition for draftees who served in Southeast Asia and America’s other wars.
He’s persistent.
“There are no monuments for draftees,” he said about his seven-year campaign to have conscripts acknowledged with their own plaque at Veterans Park on Lincoln Street near the Clallam County Courthouse.
“That’s simply wrong.”
So far, the answer has been “no” from city and county officials and local veterans groups, who do not want to differentiate among those who served in military conflicts.
He’s had the same response to his push for a service ribbon emblazoned “Vietnam War conscription.”
The “why” rejoinder arises quickly: Why stir up memories of an unpopular war that thousands of young men avoided by evading an even less popular draft?
“People have forgotten the draftees,” said Cook, full name William Anthony Cook, who reported for induction almost 50 years ago.
He said he was injured in basic training but served most of his two-year combat hitch in Vietnam as a forward artillery and air strike observer.
“Today, people don’t know what the draft is. I spoke with one [Iraq War] veteran who didn’t know what a draft dodger was.”
Especially galling to Cook is that President Jimmy Carter pardoned men who fled the country rather than enter military service.
“Carter didn’t thank the men he didn’t have to pardon,” Cook said.
An all-volunteer military replaced conscription, which late in its last incarnation chose males 18 and older in a Selective Service lottery.
Many left the country or contrived real or sham injuries or illnesses to earn deferments.
Selective Service registration requirements remain on the books, although the draft hasn’t been invoked since 1973.
Throughout American history, conscription has raised troops for colonial militias.
Both sides employed it in the Civil War (when it provoked riots in Union cities and was widely evaded in the South). It mobilized fighting forces in World War I (when conscientious objectors could be executed if found to be “insincere”), in World War II and in the Korean War.
“The draft gives the military a way to get large amounts of people in a hurry,” said Cook, who still favors some sort of mixed military/civilian compulsory national service.
“Draftees are an integral part of the military, and they deserve to be recognized just like any other group,” said Cook.
The “why not” reaction to Cook’s idea is sparked by his sheer persistence: reams of letters to public officials across the United States and its territories, to veterans organizations, even to what Cook calls “the best-known draft-dodger of all,” Muhammad Ali.
“George W. Bush gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom with no mention that he was a draft dodger,” Cook said.
Cook received no answer from the boxer, whose 1967 conviction for draft evasion was overturned four years later by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Cook notes that officials have raised monuments to dogs that served in combat and to war horses.
“It occurred to me, why isn’t ‘draftee’ mentioned in this local park?” he said.
Cook is a member of the local Voices For Veterans group; for 11 years it has sponsored the annual Stand Down for Veterans events in Port Angeles, Forks and Port Townsend at which vets who have fallen on hard times are connected with basics such as food and clothing along with advice in legal matters, transportation, health and employment.
At the Stand Down in Port Angeles last October, Cook said, members of the Clallam County Veterans Association wouldn’t speak with him or, he said, look him in the eye.
“I don’t think they like the idea that it was compulsive military service,” he said.
The “why not” question has an answer, of course, from those member of veterans organizations.
Gary W. Velie, president of the veterans association, said it rejected Cook’s request for a plaque for Vietnam War draftees last November and in March for a memorial to men drafted in all wars.
The association includes American Legion and Veterans of Foreign War posts in Port Angeles and Sequim and other organizations, and advises Clallam County commissioners on veterans issues.
The city of Port Angeles, which owns the park, acceded to the group’s recommendation.
The association, Velie wrote in a letter to the city of Port Angeles parks director, “does not condone any plaque, statue, memorial or object that tends to divide and/or separate the various patriots and veterans that served in all of the wars and actions upon foreign soil.”
Velie suggested that Cook make a memorial contribution to draftees at Sarge’s Place home for vets in Forks or the Captain Joseph House respite center for Gold Star Families in Port Angeles.
As for his repeated requests to the city, the county and the states, “it’s the same dead fish,” Velie told the Peninsula Daily News.
Honorably discharged from the Army, Cook returned from Vietnam, married his girlfriend (they’ve been wed for 46 years) and joined the U.S. Postal Service as a mail carrier, retiring after 29 years.
But “once you’ve been in war, there are some things you never forget.”
He said “1,857,304 young men” were drafted into the Army, Navy and Marines during the Vietnam War, of whom he guesses 1 million are still alive.
He is counting on their support.
Meanwhile, Cook nurses his vertebrae that were surgically fused due to his service injury and experiences an occasional flashback of combat hyper-vigilance, although he said he doesn’t suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.
His prides and joys are a quartet of American Motors classic cars and a political propaganda poster he found in a captured North Vietnamese army post.
Cook holds associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees and, at 69 years old, is considering pursuing a doctorate.
That’s alongside his pursuit of recognition for draftees.
“If people aren’t persistent, how can anything get changed?” he asked.
“I’ve been thinking about starting a nonprofit for draftees,” he said.
“I’m just going to try to spread the word and get more support.
“I want a plaque in that park.”
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
