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I'm not challenging your knowledge @sneakypete so please don't take it that way. I was born in 1953 and most of the guys in my graduating class went to Nam. My husband (same age) was up for the draft when he was 18.
@berdie He is 64. The US military pulled all combat troops but some Special Operations guys out of VN in March of 1973. This gomer is now 64,which means he was born in 1955,and was only 20 when the last conventional troops were pulled out in 1975. Which ALSO means he was only 14 years old in 1967,which,IIRC,is the year the US government stopped sending 17 year olds to VN,and only 18 when the US stopped sending combat troops to VN . By that time the few troops they were sending were experienced NCO's and officers,not 18 year old idiots with no experience. In fact,they really cut back on the numbers there were sending before 1973 because the decision had already been made to pull the troops.
BTW,I know it had to have been 1967 when the army came up with the rule that no 17 year olds could serve in VN because one of them was pulled from VN and sent to the unit I was in on Okinawa because they thought he was 17. They found out he was only 14 or 15 while there,and that he had lied about his age and gotten his senile grandmother to sign a statement saying he was 17 so he could enlist when he was just 13. So....,there he was attached to a Special Forces unit on Okinawa,only 14 or 15 years old,and had already been wounded in combat and had a Purple Heart,a Bronze Star with Valor award,and a Combat Infantryman's badge. What happened is the army notified his hometown newspaper in Ky that young PFC Shaunessy had been wounded in combat,received a couple of medals,and was on Okinawa while recovering from wounds. People at home freaked when they saw that,and notified the army. ZOOM! He was gone in the blink of an eye.
PROBABLY what happened is Chief Bullshitter was determined to be a VN ERA vet by the VA,and he dropped the "Era" tag and just called himself a VN vet. VN ERA vets were people who were just in the US Military in VN. They could have been stationed in Alaska,or Oklahoma.
It surprises people,but 90 percent of the US Military members that were sent to VN never heard a shot fired. Clerks,truck drivers,cooks,supply people,hospital orderlies,finance clerks,etc,etc,etc. There were many,MANY enlisted soldiers that went to VN who went to work every day in dress uniforms and never handled a weapon the whole time they were there.
