Minorities In The Military Essay -- essays research papers

In the year 1965, the United States sent troops to Vietnam to aid the South Vietnamese against the communist Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese. As the fighting increased, the United States was in need of more troops in order to support its commitment to South Vietnam. Therefore, thousands of Selective Service registers were called and drafted. The United States also asked its closes ally the Philippines to help send troops to South Vietnam and in addition this, the United states requested for an increase of recruitment for the United States Navy in the region. Thus, the U.S. enlisted thousands of Philippine natives, including myself.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  My involvement started in July of 1968, when I was flown to the United States beginning my military training in San Diego. Recalling the eight weeks of hard, intensive training, I still considered myself fortunate to be enlisted in the United States Navy. Although, when I did graduate boot camp, I cherished the prize of rest and recreation for 72 hours. My short-lived vacation began with a group of my fellow Filipino recruits. We decided to catch a bus to downtown San Diego. As we boarded the bus, I stopped in confusion when I noticed a sign with â€Å"Black† written at the back section of the bus. Looking for the driver for direction, I was informed by the driver that was no longer enforced. Even with him saying this, I still sat in the middle row since my skin color fell in between black and white. As we arrived downtown, I experience culture shock. The town was colorful and filled with live entertainment. Although, I did want to spend more time exploring the place, my vacation time was up and I had to go back to the base. As our company gathered for the last day, we waited for our next order of job training. I was wondering why Filipino recruits and few African American were separated. Having the same order to attend SD â€Å"A† school (Steward), we are not aware that our General Classification Test was high enough to be qualified in other ratings. This discrimination was puzzling to me since, the Americans I knew back in the Philippines were good people and America itself is known to be the land of opportunity. Despite this slight discrimination, I had accepted my rate and still considered American as good people of good will. My very first day in steward school was a terrible and memorable one. I wa... ...aturalization Service office told me that I was not qualified for naturalization since my 6 years time in the military was a broken residency. The time, I had accumulated in the service was least than five years in Continental United States. Although I spent six years in the U S Navy, the three six-month tours in Vietnam did not count toward the requirement for naturalization. I signed up again for four year, and waited my time to sworn in for naturalization. I was now an official U.S. citizen gaining all the rights of one. Therefore, I expected my treatment to be equal to those Caucasian decent. As I look back, I still wonder the Navy allowed certain races to be assigned as stewards. Through thinking the Political science class of Professor Robert Bacon, I realized the mistake of our forefathers in writing the constitution in allowing slavery practice. Applying this to the Navy, I also realize how it was allowed that certain races were assigned to be a steward. In conclusion, I am grateful for the individual rights ruling of chief Justice Earl Warren. Through this ruling, many benefited from it especially minorities, as myself, in the United States.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚