HeyBearcat: Paul DePaolo

“War changed things dramatically. Vietnam War viciously messed up the whole country in terms of how people thought not in terms of education, but about work, war, politics, and the economy. It was very difficult to understand growing up in that period.”

To be in school meant you are deferred. I don’t know how I made it out but I guess I had a high enough draft number so I didn’t have to worry about it, but it was always on my mind. For anyone who ended up being in that war, their lives were changed dramatically whether it was mentally or physically or whatever. It was psychologically very tough based on what I know of. But what do I know, I wasn’t in the war.

It was a mind-wrenching war for anyone involved. It was more so than any war we faced. It was the first war everybody got to see it everyday and reflect on it every day. The nature of war enters into discussions even though we are not warriors. I don’t think any one of us here are warriors.”