The Fourteenth Of September

By Rita Dragonette

The Fourteenth of September is the debut novel of public relations executive Rita Dragonette, who recalls her personal experiences of fifty years ago in telling the story. She draws an excellent picture of the turmoil on college campuses as antiwar sentiment increased in 1969. The book opens with protagonist Judy Talton, a sophomore in college, celebrating her nineteenth birthday on September 14. She has joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) as a way of paying for her education. When she becomes involved with students who are protesting the war in Vietnam, she must keep her ROTC affiliation a secret from her new friends. She also must keep her new passion a secret from her mother, a U.S. Army veteran.

Judy is chosen as one of the marchers when the students pool their money to send a bus to Washington, D.C., for a “March on Washington.” Fearing a loss of her scholarship, she carries her antiwar sign and tries to avoid cameras. Judy realizes her personal conflict is a microcosm of the larger conflict in American society.

Her male classmates with poor grades worry about losing their student deferments, which could result in them being drafted and sent to fight in Vietnam. Their girlfriends worry along with them. Then comes the new experience of a draft lottery drawing. The war in Vietnam has grown to the extent that the U.S. government orders a lottery on December 1, 1969, using birthdates to determine the order in which young men will be drafted. Judy and her friends agonize over the upcoming event.

When one student says he’s sick of empathy from women who don’t understand how the men feel, one insulted woman declares, “Who do you think you are?” He replies, “I’m a guy. A guy who’s going to get a number tomorrow, and that number will determine if I’m going to live or die. Something like that happening in your life soon?” She doesn’t respond. He reminds her the guys are the ones who will have to decide when to pull the trigger and who might get killed. He states, “There is nothing, nothing in the entire experience of your sex that can prepare you for how to understand what that feels like.”

Judy observes this exchange without comment. The following day, when the drawing occurs, September 14 is the birthdate drawn as number one. Judy sees the significance in that. As a woman, she is safe; women won’t be drafted, regardless of their grade point average. But a male friend who shares her birthday and has failing grades will lose his deferment and be drafted into the U.S. Army. He can expect combat in Vietnam.

The premise of The Fourteenth of September is that battles fought by women also leave scars and are critically relevant, even though they are normally battles of impact rather than combat. A story “much larger than the confines of a war story,” the author explains, “it is the story of the coming of conscience of women and it can be equally related to the plight of women today and the battles faced in our current society.”

This reviewer—who was the same age as Judy and who later spent three decades as a military officer–finds the premise a bit of a stretch. Lives of impact can’t be compared to combat. The one semester of Judy’s college life covered by the novel doesn’t appear to have wide-ranging impact. That said, her character is well-developed and the situation real. Judy and her classmates represent students of their time.

The Fourteenth of September is a peek into the history of 1969. This book will appeal to those who experienced college moratoriums and antiwar protests, which are well described. It will also appeal to those who want to understand the agonies felt by those young people whose lives were being disrupted by war.