3. What could you be asked to do if you were a conscientious objector? Wouldn't this have been a good option if you didn't want to fight?

To clarify, is this a question about Vietnam era or US history overall?

If overall:

In WWII, COs could do general civil service type work, but more interestingly, they were human guinea pigs. That link (which is for one of the Quaker organizations that received the Nobel Peace Prize for its CO & relief work in WWII) mentions experiments on the survivability of being shipwrecked--starving at sea, potentially drinking seawater, exposure. There were experiments with the progression and treatment of infectious diseases. The government also intentionally starved COs to see how to correctly help someone recover from starvation and malnutrition. That link mentions protein-deficient diets and the psychological harm of starvation. From what I understand, these experiments were how the soldiers knew not to over-feed starved inmates at the Nazi work/death camps.

My husband met one of these COs at a Quaker gathering, and he talked about being fed sawdust as part of the starvation experiments. He says that man's presentation (it was to my husband's youth group) on being a CO during WWII was fascinating. He also clarifies that the COs consented to the experiments to help the prisoners, whereas the Nazis human experiments were never consensual.