My hat is off to him
IIRC, one of the last Vietnam volunteers retired not too long ago. (Col. Joe Repya)
One day I made a pretty serious effort to find out when the last Vietnam War Marine draftee left the service or retired, and can’t find a word on it.
They have CWO-5s?
They probably pull in Major/Lt.Col. pay.. Not bad.
My number was 317. I enlisted.
So did all my brothers.
Thanks for your service, CWO!
Well done Chief. Thanks for your service.
I started my basic training at Fort Dix 42 years ago this month. I think there were only a couple of draftees in our company.The rest were RA’s,AR’s, & NG’s.
In 1964 I was a sailor on a Swedish merchant ship. My pre-induction physical notice followed me around from port to port until the mail finally caught up with the ship at the Port of San Pedro in California. I was way overdue for the physical.
I went into L.A. and found a recruiter and asked what to do. He said, “Enlist and we will ignore the draft notice.” I did. Army Security Agency. After basic and school, I spent 37 months and 11 days at a small converted airbase in Bavaria. Some of the best time of my life.
This is great story and his mother was right in that she didn't raise any quitters.
I got my Army draft notice in 1965. Decided to go ahead and sign up for the Navy.
I wonder if he volunteered for the draft. I was 19 in 1973 and nobody in my high school class came close to getting drafted. One of my high school classmate pulled the number 5 in the lottery and he was not drafted. Things were a lot different in 1973 versus 1967 etc.
In Stockton, CAL 1955 there were about 40 of us draftees. The first two ranks went Navy, the rest of us Army. I have no idea how many guys (draftees) went for the re-up talks at the end of the two years.
My birthday was number one in the draft. I read that when I was in Vietnam.
Interesting that the article says he’s moving to Fayetteville, NC. I don’t
know where he’s from but he’s staying close to the military. Fayetteville is
the location of Fort Bragg home to the Army Airborne and Special Operations with
approximately 57,000 military personnel, 11,000 civilian employees and 23,000 family
members and is one of the largest military complexes in the world.
And there is this:
http://www.duffelblog.com/2014/05/warrant-officers/
What a hit piece (IMO).
I enlisted USMC, but far, far after any draft was around (hat tip to you gentlemen). I had the pleasure of being instructed by CWO Gunner Martin who was attached to my platoon while I was in. The man taught me demolitions, effective fire; hell, he taught us damn near everything short of the 80mm mortars (I was in a Weapons Co.) and to deploy/employ them for maximum damage. We learned how to operate trains, naval vessels; how to drive (CDL) trucks; he was especially keen on teaching us some of the nasty booby traps he learned about during his tours in Vietnam.
At any rate, there are kickass warrant officers out there, the article I posted tells me the brass and pol’s in DC have no idea what our military is really doing or what it is capable of.
I’m surprised they were still drafting in late 1971 since military wide they started giving early outs around July. Many of my buddies started getting their orders that fall, I got a 3 month early out in Jan, 1972.