So when Randall Young disappeared, he still had three years left to go on his original enlistment. That would have carried him through to 1973, and the American involvement in the Vietnam War would have been over and he would have been safe.

Of course, no one knew that in 1970, when the conflict had dragged on for so many years and held the unfortunate record of being America’s longest war.

It was not intended to be a “Hold My Beer” moment in history, but here we are.

So now the unit is willing to let him pick up where he left off so he can avoid charges of desertion, which is still a thing but doesn’t carry the old penalties from war movies, like execution. People do take unauthorized leave and have to be tracked down, but nowadays it is more of a “fines and jail time” type of thing. Still no fun.

But SPC-5 Randall Young checked out from a very different Army in 1970. Women used to serve in the WACs, or Womens’ Army Corps, which was a sort of ‘separate but equal’ branch with its own recruiting and training cadres. They served in WAC units and while they may have been co-located with male units, they had their own chain of command, pay, and so on.

In 1978 the WACs were disbanded and female soldiers were rolled into the regular Army and men & women all served together as one branch. Specialist-5 Young would have missed all this, hiding in his Conex.

Change came slowly, and while women could serve in combat *support* roles like Military Police, field Medics, and eventually Engineers, it wasn’t until 2013 that all restrictions were removed from women serving in combat roles. Now, women can serve in Infantry, Armor, Artillery, and so on without restriction. They are still exempt from being drafted, however.

However, everyone still has to go to SHARP class.