Today, anybody in the Service is a pure volunteer, whatever reasons they joined up for, the fact is that they are volunteers, from the Private to the Full General. The armed forces are now also mich stricter in their entry requirements. It has an extremly hrash attitude agianst drug-taking and professionalism is drilled into the recruits’ heads during basic and the NCOs courses are tough.

Back then in Vietnam, things were very different . Congress did not declare war, instead it declared a resolution that allowed the President to conduct operations in Vietnam. However, the White House refused to activate the experienced Reserves, many whom had WW2 and Korean experience. Instead, 18 year olds were conscripted into 1 year service.

It was called the Draft. Back then, you could escape the draft if you were going into college or you were medically unfit. The result was that those whom were drafted were high-school dropouts, or unable to enter or pay for college. Also, large numbers of those drafted had problems with alcoholism and drug abuse. Many had already commited felonies.

The enlistees were given 9 weeks of basic training in a north american woodlands terrain learning tactics modelled after WW2. After that, they were sent into a tropical jungle with a completely different environment fighting an insurgency war. They never had any training in fighting insurgents.

Some of the enlistees were given only 6 weeks training to become NCOs. Some were chosen to become officers in a 14 week program.

At that time, cold war planners knew they could not risk attacking North Vietnam at all for fear of nuclear escalation. When you hear people talking about the Vietnam War, they are actually talking about the violence inside South Vietnam, not the fighting with the North.

The 1 year soldiers spent their own year in South Vietnam patrolling the rural areas of Vietnam over and over again. The US military and the south govt were safe enough in the cities and urban areas, but the countryside belonged to the insurgents. I’m sure you know what is patrolling. Now imagine patrolling a tropical environement for 3 days and go back to camp for 2 days and go back out for another 3 days.

And everytime you got out, you got shot at by insurgents that looked exactly like the civilians of the villages you went pass your patrol. Remeber, some of those draftees had criminal histories and they bought alcohol and drugs along with them during patrol.

Due to the stress, many of them snapped and committed war crimes against the rural population. They burned down the entire villages, burnt the crops and shot all the livestock. Its not like the villagers could go to a supermarket. Their very lives depended on their crops and animals. Several unspeakable atrocities were committed as well. As a result, many of them joined the insurgents.

It was quite common for a patrolling platoon to be led by a corporal or even a private , because the officers and NCOs stayed back at the base because they were afriad of being shot and killed the moment they left the base.

After their 1 year was up, they went back to the States. They had no contact with the incoming 1 year draftees that were replacing them. As a result, the new units were unable to obtain and build on the experience and advice of the ”veterans”

On the contrary, professional soldiers go wherever they are told to go and donot have a right to object.

I think this must have made the difference.

This is not acceptable behavior from my point of view. This family didn’t make the decisions that sent their son or daughter into combat. And saying farewell to their hero shouldn’t be made into a political statement by anyone!

And, anyone that would do this is nothing more than a coward in my mind. They want the rights…but, they fail to see these rights sometimes have a price. And, to disgrace someones final moments that was willing to fight for them…it is lower that the lowest type of parasite

I am not sure that I agree with all of the reasons why we are there…but, at this point it doesn’t matter….we are there…and we have to win. I would like to see a greater latitude given to our troops to deal with threats…before they happen. But, then again we aren’t the people that make that decision.

God Bless…and you have my greatest thanks and respect for serving.

I come from a military family too…from everyone that I have talked to that was in Vietnam…none of them wanted to be there. Although, I do know people that volunterred for three tours to make sure someone else didn’t have to go. But, even these people didn’t want to be there. They where there because they had the experience and maybe they could keep more of our people alive. Enough said.