The Answer:

After graduating from Harvard College in 1969, Al Gore was drafted for service in the U.S. Army.

In Vietnam, he served as an army reporter with the 20th Engineering Battalion, which was stationed outside Saigon. He sent copies of his stories to his wife, who passed them on to the Tennessean, a newspaper in Nashville.

When Gore completed his service in 1971 he was offered a job by the paper to be a reporter, which he accepted.

—The Editors