George Otto, 75, of Youngstown, stands in front of the Vietnam Veterans memorial in downtown Youngstown. The Army veteran served in Vietnam and used the GI Bill to earn a master’s degree in urban studies from Cleveland State University.

YOUNGSTOWN — While majoring in American history at the University of Detroit, George Otto was in the ROTC.

After graduation in 1969, he could have avoided combat but instead signed up to go to Vietnam.

“I’m from a big family, and I felt somebody should go,” Otto, 75, said.

He was there during a period known as “Vietnamization,” President Richard Nixon’s effort to turn the war over to the Vietnamese.

“We were supposed to be advisers. So the question was, ‘When do you cross the line from being an adviser to being a combatant?’ ” Otto said.

An even bigger problem was a lack of communication between the Americans and the Vietnamese.

“One day we would fly in helicopters and be involved in a combat assault, or we would get on trucks and walk into an area. Another time we would get on boats. It was their show, and they were calling the shots. There was no coordination, and the goal was not to take land, but to kill soldiers. It was a war of attrition,” Otto said.

He said as an adviser, a bounty was on his head, so he would rarely leave the compound to enter the city because “there were things that happened.”

He was discharged in December 1971 and began a meandering career, starting with obtaining a master’s degree in urban studies from Cleveland State University.

“I just love cities and wanted to learn about them. So that’s how I used the GI Bill,” he said.

He took a bus to Atlanta and landed various government jobs, including Health Program Representative for the Cobb County Health Department, then City Planner and Assistant Zoning Commissioner for the city of Atlanta.

After graduating from Woodrow Wilson College of Law, he said he “wanted to do something for people,” and he became the director of the Southern Center for Military Veterans Rights, helping veterans, including prison inmates, get discharge upgrades.

“You can’t get benefits with a bad discharge,” Otto said.

Eventually, he became a social work supervisor at a veterans center in Washington, D.C. This culminated in a move to Northeast Ohio, where he worked from 2000 to 2015 for VA Outpatient Centers in Youngstown, Calcutta and Warren.

He ran a homeless program through Meridian Services, where he provided substance abuse counseling. He started “standdowns,” giving out needed supplies at the Salvation Army and Rescue Mission.

“It helped that I speak the language. I understand what people went through,” Otto said.

One of his many side jobs in D.C. was legal counsel to boxing organizations. They lobbied Congress to pass bills ensuring that a physician and an ambulance are present at every fight. Besides seeing the need, part of it was “the tradition of watching the Pabst Blue Ribbon fights on Wednesday nights and the Gillette Cavalcade of Sport fights on Friday nights with my father.”

He has recently written to the Ukrainian embassy offering his services.

“The only problem is I’m over 60.”

However, he noted he could be either a therapist or a military adviser.

“If 10 percent of Americans would volunteer, the oligarchs would give Putin a tap on the shoulder and say it’s time to go,” Otto said.

The journey from adviser in Vietnam to adviser in Ukraine would be an unusual full circle for the Youngstown resident.

In the meantime, he belongs to 19 veteran organizations, even helping to erect a monument in Des Moines, Iowa. He was in Washington for the dedication of The Wall as well as the Military Women’s Memorial and has been a part of veteran reunions throughout the country.

“The audience gets smaller every day. They forget or they die,” he said.

Otto said he will never forget.