The Draft: Soldiers Without Arms

When a nine-man infantry squad set out one night this month to lay an ambush for the Viet Cong near the Bao Trai airstrip in the northern coastal region of South Viet Nam, Paul Widtfeldt Jr., an unarmed medical specialist, went along. Next morning, nine of the ten men were found shot through the head. Among them was redhaired, bespectacled Medic Widtfeldt, who had been killed while tending a dying buddy. For his courage, the Army revealed last week, Widtfeldt, 21, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, will be posthumously awarded a second Bronze Star; his...

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