During the Vietnam War, many went to
 college or became conscientious
 objectors  to avoid going to war.  Some
 went to Canada to seek refuge there.

But hundreds of thousands of America's men and
women chose to answer their country's call and
learned of sun-scorched landscape and brain-boiling
heat while packing eighty pregnant pounds.  They
learned of hot house humidity, dehydration, heat
exhaustion, sunburn, red dust, torrential rains,
boot-sucking mud, blood-sucking leeches, steaming
jungles, malaria, dysentery, razor sharp elephant
grass, bush sores, jungle rot, moaning and groaning,
meals in green cans, armies of insects, fire ants,
poisonous centipedes, mosquitoes, flies, bush
snakes, vipers, scorpions, rats, boredom, incoming
fire, body bags, and a thousand more discomforts
and lessons not taught on any campus.

Back home, there were VWs
and brightly painted buses.
They traveled cross country
on an adventure of free love,
flower power and friends.
Tie-dye and peace symbols
were signs of the times.

 Over there they traveled on
 helicopters, armored vehicles,
jeeps, ships, or a number of
other military vehicles, that
took them across a country
full of the unknown.  Olive
drab green and incoming,
were the signs of the times.

Back home, they listened to
The Beatles, CCR, Percy Sledge, 
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles,
 The Temptations, The Lovin' Spoonful,
 The Beach Boys, Donovan,
 The Byrds, and Joan Baez
just to name a few...