UNA alumnus reflects on Vietnam Era

First Lt. Niles Floyd wearing his Army Greens in 1968. Niles was a student at the University of North Alabama when he entered the Advanced ROTC program and later was assigned to a base in South Korea to train soldiers.

Niles Floyd was registering for classes for his junior year at UNA (then Florence State Teachers College) in 1965 when an officer from ROTC called to him. 48 years later in a dining room in Tuscumbia, Niles explains to me, “I’d done basic ROTC earlier in college and they’d been trying to get me into Advanced ROTC for a semester or two, but I didn’t want to. But I knew he was going to try again.” 

Niles came over and the officer asked him, “Niles, what are you going to do when you graduate?” 

Niles replied, “I’m going to go work as a chemist for a chemical company.” 

“No you’re not,” the officer responded, “you’re going to graduate and three months later you’re going to get your draft letter, you’re going to go to basic training and then you’re going to Vietnam as a private.” 

Niles had entered UNA in 1963 and during his first semester, John F. Kennedy was assassinated and the war really began to escalate. 

“It wasn’t until Johnson took over that it started becoming an issue. I called it Johnson’s war in college. I wanted no part of it, but it was just a fact that if you were over 18, healthy, and out of college, you were drafted. So I decided to take Advanced ROTC so I could become an officer and have a better chance to survive.” 

He entered into Advanced ROTC and began preparing to go to Vietnam. Niles recalls those years at UNA, “The pressure on the young men in college was intense. My senior year, I was newly married, working 11pm-7am shifts at a canning plant, and studying as much as I could to stay alive in a Vietnamese jungle.” 

When asked why he married so young, Niles explained, “Well, I had given myself a 50/50 chance of living to be 25. I didn’t have time to wait or be patient.”

Niles graduated and was assigned to a base in South Korea to train American and South Korean soldiers. 

“It was funny actually. They had pulled so many officers from Korea to Vietnam, that they didn’t have enough for Korea. So they sent me there. God was answering a prayer I’d prayed since my senior year to never have to kill a man.” 

Niles’ faith was central to his life and dealing with the war. 

“I remember being in an airport in Seattle waiting for a plane to take me to Korea, and I was so frustrated. My wife was three months pregnant with our first child and I was leaving them because of a stupid war. I just wanted to say, ‘Screw the government’ and go home. 

“But what would that accomplish? I’d go to jail and my wife and child would still be without me. I realized then that I wasn’t really free.”

Niles put his faith in God.

“Some man in Washington was controlling my life. The only real choice I had was whether or not I was going to trust God. I may not have control over where I go or what I do, but I can choose to trust God and trust He is in control of the men in control of me.”

When asked what advice he’d give students today.

Niles said “Really, I don’t see a lot of difference between students back then and students today. The only difference is that we had the pressure of a war. We both face similar issues in one way or another. The advice I’d give students today is the same I’d give myself if I could go back: Strive to know and learn about Jesus Christ and trust God. Stand strong for your faith.”