Being drafted into the Vietnam War in 1971 changed Don Marsh’s life forever — but not in the way you might think.

A LaFayette native, Marsh, now 57, had just completed two years of college, studying to be a computer technician, some at Massey College in Atlanta and the remainder at the University of Akron in Ohio, when he got the news from the U.S. Army. Marsh was stationed in Bindlach, Germany, and spent a year doing patrol along the Czechoslovakian border.

Then his captain came to him with an idea.

The large military base included an American school for the children of the servicemen and women stationed there. There was an opening for a teaching position that included serving as assistant coach of the boys basketball team and being in charge of field trips. Marsh hesitated, until the captain gave him two other options.

“I won’t divulge what those were, but I definitely did not want either one,” Marsh said. “So I ‘volunteered’ for the position.”

The job wasn’t easy for the 19-year-old.

“The children I was in charge of on the basketball team were unruly,” he said. “They were the sons of the captains and the lieutenants, and they were spoiled and undisciplined.”

Marsh developed a strict program to get them in shape, help them learn teamwork and be competition ready. At first many of the boys balked, but soon Marsh’s plan came together.

“We had a successful season,” he said. “They even played some of the soldiers and beat them.”

Marsh says the experience turned his world upside down.

“The mixture of unruliness, athletics, a lack of discipline and a large dose of discipline from the military set me on a path to education,” he said.

A torture chamber solidified his choice.

“I put together a field trip for a group of third- and fourth-graders to the Nürnberg, Germany, torture chambers and that one field trip changed me more than anything,” said Marsh. “They were underground, and it had a strange odor. When I came back I knew I wanted to stay in education.”

Marsh was honorably discharged in December 1972 and spent the next four or five years working in Atlanta. One day his phone rang with the news that he was needed in Akron.

“My relatives needed me,” said Marsh. “I knew then it was time to complete my degree, so I re-enrolled at Akron University and got my bachelor’s in K-8 education.”