Maybe history books tell us that days of shanghaiing men to work shipboard are over but in 2003 thousands of men and women were shanghaiied into combat without a clue. Drafted to serve on a battlefield, National Guard men and women fight and die.

I was studying third year college math - the basic science needed to work in many technology fields. Impressive macho recruiters came to the campus with convincing arguments that I should serve my country and still continue my education. Protecting my country appealed to my innate patriotism. Completing my education made sense to me.

I willingly signed up for the National Guard. Weekly and annually in government issued uniform, I faithfully met with my military unit. Then a year after graduation my unit was called up to serve my country overseas. This was an emergency! In our ordinary uniforms we were to serve for a few months.

That emergency was extended to a year. I had no real combat training and certainly never been prepared for facing hateful faceless foreigners. I was not outfitted in battle regalia. I saw my fellow soldiers shot to pieces. It was then I had to shoot or get shot.

I did not contract to be a killer. But there I was - brought into a situation I was not properly outfitted for. I had been shanghaiied, taken against my will, to kill, maim or die in an unjust war.

Name withheld to avoid court martial.