Turn your head and fail to watch carefully enough, 44 years pass.

I got my draft notice early on in 1969.  That moment was a time of acceleration of the war effort by our government.  I recognized that entering as a draftee at that time meant I was likely to be trained for military service as an 11B20, aka 11Bravo, Light Arms Infantryman.  I just kept trying to delay the whole mess, hoping against hope that somehow, someway it would all go away.

It didn't.

I enlisted just prior to the deadline and received in exchange for offering an extra year of my life a deferred entry date and the opportunity to be trained as a 76P20, Stock Control and Accounting Specialist.

I would be there for 3 years instead of 2 but I would work in a warehouse instead of in a light infantry squad.  A lot of paperwork instead of an M-16.

I entered the military on 12 September 1969.  Woodstock had already occurred on 15, 16 and 17 August 1969.  The festival created a small sensation and by the time of my military entrance it had already over the Labor Day weekend of 1969 been featured on the cover of the then still culturally significant Life magazine.

I arrived in Cam Ranh Bay, Republic of South Vietnam at the 22nd Replacement Battalion on 1 April 1970.  I was assigned to the US Army Depot, Cam Ranh Bay.  I was being processed by a sergeant in the personnel section of that unit for placement with some unit or another of the large warehouse district located on the south end of the peninsula.  He typed poorly and with only a couple of fingers.  From behind him I announced that I could type a lot better than that.  I had taken typing as a 9th grader at District Junior High School in Bovey.

He turned towards me, looking slightly irritated but also slightly amused.  He turned back to the typewriter.  He rolled the personnel form out of the typewriter, rolled in a fresh sheet of paper, and then moved away again as he offered me his chair and the typewriter and the opportunity to prove that what I had just said was true.

I was an A student in typing in 9th grade.  I had absolutely no trouble convincing the sergeant that I could type.  This was before computers, obviously.  In 1970 if you could actually type the US Army needed you to type.  I was an A student in typing.  After that I typed.

The combat zone assignment came with something called R&R, rest and recreation.  After 6 months in country the military would provide a 7 day free leave and transportation to one of several locations.

The movie "Woodstock" had come out in May 1970.  When R&R came up for me in the fall of 1970 the only thing that I really, really wanted to do was see the movie.  I took R&R in Honolulu.  I went to the movie, it was practically the first thing I did after arriving in Hawaii.

Nothing I saw in that darkened theater that afternoon changed my life.  My life had already been changed.  But I saw performances that stunned and amazed me, performances that to this day continue to stun and amaze me every time I watch again.

I loved the Joe Cocker.

I loved the Who.

I loved Ten Years After.

This one though, by a then completely unknown Santana, is the one that killed the most.

And after all this time, it absolutely continues to kill.

I love the guys at the beginning of the piece doing volunteer percussion on the plywood fence.

Late edit:  there is a musically more complete (including the full drum solo by just turned 20 years old Michael Shrieve) available here.  The video isn't quite as good in this version as the full wide screen is compressed for the available video format.  Musically it is superior and despite the video quality it still definitely does it for me.  At the time of the performance at Woodstock Michael had just turned 20 and Carlos was 22.