The title of my post is based on a song written and performed in the 1970s by the Steve Miller band. It was one of those songs that made an immediate impression on me. Based on record sales and “air time,” it evidently made a similar impression on many others (see “Fly Like An Eagle Steve Miller Band“). In some ways the song is a “Stoner’s delight,” in that the first audience to fully embrace the music and the lyrics were “Stoners,” people who spent time smoking marijuana. For one reason or another, many of those who resonated with the song were Vietnam veterans and/or those who knew veterans of the war in Vietnam.
I am a Vietnam veteran. During that conflict, I was stationed at (First) Ft. Campbell, Kentucky; (Second) Ft. Sam Houston, Texas; and (Third) Long Bihn, Vietnam. When we, the American soldiers, landed at the air base in Vietnam, we were told, “You’re in Vietnam now. If you (vernacular for “make a mistake”), you will be shot.” I was one of the lucky ones. I had a skill that was valuable to the Army: I could type. They (the military) didn’t have to teach me. At my parents’ suggestion I had taken typing in high school. I didn’t know at that time how important that would be. Typing was what kept me out of combat in Vietnam. It didn’t keep me out of the Vietnam combat zone; however, and I ended up spending more than six months in Vietnam during the war. But I was one of the “lucky ones.”
I spent most of my time in the military on U.S. bases, typing reports. Even so, I left the military with an “attitude.” I drove too fast most of the time. I was heading to my last duty station in the States, when I was stopped for speeding (85 in a 55). The officer asked me where I was going in “such a hurry.” When I told him, “Vietnam,” he told me to try to get there while I was still alive. He did not give me a ticket…. After leaving the service and returning to school, I wore my jungle boots to class most of the time and took a lot of chances while riding my motorcycle. I definitely had “an attitude.”
I had a lot of help with “attitude adjustment” from faculty, who helped me get reoriented to “civilization” and the rigors of an academic career. I was able to make the adjustment from “combat veteran” to faculty with the help of my academic friends and associates. Part of that, of course, was adjusting to the “academic requirement” of “publish or perish.” Fortunately, I enjoyed academic research and writing and ended up with a long and relatively happy career as an academic. I adjusted well to academic life and ended up retiring after a career of writing, publishing, and serving as a department chair. and avoided combat. I enjoyed reading, including reading required for research, and writing, including academic papers. A lot of my friends struggled with academic research and publication.
In spite of a fairly long career as an academic, I have never forgotten my time in the military and in a war zone. I knew first-hand the role chance plays in life. I was one of the lucky ones, and I knew it. My father, who served during WW II, told me about the time he and a buddy were sitting on a log having lunch when they were strafed by a Japanese Zero. My dad fell on one side of the log, and his buddy fell on the other. My dad was unhurt. His buddy was killed. 30 years later, he could still remember every detail.
While I was in Vietnam, I was assigned a driver and told to take a “deuce and a half” (a two and-a half—ton troop transport) to our sector of the perimeter and prepare to receive wounded soldiers. The enemy attacked a different sector. I was one of the lucky ones and know full well the role chance plays in life. While you are in the military, others control your life. You go where you are told. You eat what is offered. Such restrictions influence the way people think about things primarily by reducing the individual sense of responsibility for what happens.
The “structuring of responsibility” is perhaps one of the most important aspects of civilized life. In some ways, of course, if everyone is responsible, then no one is responsible. Tribal chiefs, kings, queens, and other “royalty” assume the responsibility for the tribe as a whole. Modern militaries use rank as the primary way to describe and define responsibility.
When you fly like an eagle, your spirit is free.