Posted on 03/08/2015 7:06:50 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Another loon that extended?
I extended to escape finishing my enlistment dealing with stateside chicken-shiite, and a desire to get out into the war a bit.
I bet you had to deal with a lot of the same incredulous "why in hell would you want to stay here?"
I never regretted staying, those were the most memorable months of the time there.
I successfully dodged the draft.
I have a tremendous amount of respect to those who served. I was in ROTC in college and missed Vietnam..I regret not going to Vietnam to this day. Everyone who served and went, is a better man than I...and deserves respect.
It’s a long story, another example of having to embrace
the Green suck.
Prefer not to think about it.
“My father (USMC) was there in late 63 & early 64 as an “adviser”. Damn near got killed.”
I can relate to that. My father was a US Army LtC at the Pentagon. In early ‘62 his office partner returned from a year in Saigon and said “they may not call it a war but we’re sure using ammunition like it’s one”. Dad shipped out in summer of ‘62 for his year as an adviser in Vietnam.
When you have the chance to listen to mid level officers you can find out what’s going on without all the BS. They aren’t politicians, they aren’t speaking to the press, and they have a very real interest in knowing exactly what they are dealing with. ‘Pretend’ can get you killed. Unfortunately politicians deal in ‘pretend’ all the time and military personnel pay the price.
Thank you for your service!
“Certainly, if the Congress had lived up to our promises, the South Vietnamese could have held out longer, but they almost certainly couldn’t have won.”
Obviously you know way more about this than what I have only read. So the South didn’t have much in the way of artillery? I imagine that they had some form of an air-force, but probably on the order of a few dozen planes.
Hiya JJ, how’s weather and job going?
Certainly Ford was President when the Democrat Congress failed to appropriate funds agreed by the Paris Accords and our promises to the South Vietnamese government. But, to think that the Senate refusal to appropriate emergency funds for an invasion that had already overrun the Central Highlands is not realistic.
Read something about the Easter Offensive of 1972, the agreement in the Paris Accord that allowed North Vietnamese Army unit to retain gains that they made in ‘72, and the lack of support to rearm and reequip the ARVN after the ‘72 offensive. The Senate was not involved in any of these fatal errors and their action in April, 1975 was simply a Coup de Grace, it ended a war that was already over.
Don’t read the political histories, read the books that present an accurate military account of the war. The politicians sold out the soldiers and, in my view, the country. With recent practice, they are getting quite good at it.
The job is good.
The weather is +15 with 6 inches of snow in the last day.
The weatherguy says we should drop -20 in the next couple of days.
Good shot. A bit left, by 0-.
We gave them considerable artillery, helicopters, and airplanes when we left, but we didn’t leave them sufficient ammunition and spare parts and after 1972 we refused to give them any kind of combat reinforcement to counter an attack. In 1975, The North Vietnamese Army attacked with 20 divisions.
“Nixon began to withdraw combat troops immediately upon being sworn into office “
Nixon’s ‘Vietnamization’ campaign.
“The biggest attacks occurred in 1972, when all our grounds forces had either left the country or withdrawn to coastal enclaves.”
‘Easter Offensive 1972’- the ARVN and SVN Marines actually acquitted themselves well for once and repulsed the NVA invasion.
“without American forces, the South Vietnamese had insufficient forces to stop a multi-corps armor and infantry invasion... The North Vietnamese won the war with conventional forces fighting conventional tactics in an undeveloped country. “
You know your stuff.
“Certainly, if the Congress had lived up to our promises, the South Vietnamese could have held out longer, but they almost certainly couldn’t have won.”
I agree. If you are going to fight off an aggressive enemy you have to feel like you are a nation. South Vietnam was a splintered society with factions that weren’t much interested in cooperating with each other. Not a recipe for success.
“Nixon was a Democrat? Who knew?”
Are you uninformed or simply an idiot?
Well, I did too, but I never thought of it that way, LOL, but I guess it’s true
= = = = = = = = = =
Mine was calculated..in 1956 figured why hang around ‘waiting’ a couple years to get drafted, just go into the Corps and get it over with.
I did end up in the Navy and on a 1959 Westpac Cruise my Mother had written the CO asking why the FBI were pounding on her door wondering why I hadn’t registered for the draft.
Made it ‘worse’ as I had a TS Clearance so there should have been some kind of ‘crossing the wires there’.
I was too slow and got run right over...with draft # 87.
South Vietnam needed ammunition, gasoline, and spare parts.
The 1975 Watergate Congress left them hanging.
We had trained them to fight like we do, with mechanized heavy firepower. They weren’t trained to use unconventional warfare to defeat a vast armored invasion and it probably wasn’t possible.
There was one highway headed south and it was jammed with North Vietnamese armor and trucks. It was one giant traffic jam. The American Navy was begging to be let off the leash, one carrier could have turned it into the Mother of All Highways of Death and it would have bought RSVN several more years of existence.
I did too. I enlisted in 1960 at age 17. Did almost three years overseas, in Southeast Asia and Europe. In Dec 1963, I went to my draft board in downtown Detroit. I told the lady that I thought I might be a little bit late registering at age 21. She practically had a cow until I showed her my DD214.
LOL, one would think so, but Uncle Sam is an interesting and often unorganized guy.
Thanks for your Service!
“South Vietnam needed ammunition, gasoline, and spare parts.
The 1975 Watergate Congress left them hanging....”
You’re all right and you’re all wrong.
I served in VN from 10/68 - 1/70 although my permanent station was in the RPI and my time in VN was TDY’s (TADs? I forget). I’ve watched VN change. I went there and worked in the mid 90’s when it was still mostly like Russia; since then a surge of free market thinking has taken hold and it’s now a mix of free market/Marxism, more Marxist as you go North, more free market as you go south.
Everyone over the age of 50 know the U.S. could have cleaned VN’s clock btwn ‘67 and ‘72 but everyone probably also knows the bleeding heart Democrats never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity especially if they can blame the whole broken omelet on Republicans. They succeeded again.
For everyone who served, thanks for your service. For everyone who dodged the draft, I’d like to be there when you’re buried and have a six pack handy.
And here, and I thought I was the first one to play that trick on a draft office.......Should have known. Also should have known by the lack of violent reactions! Still, great fun. Think i have that musty old dradt card somewhere, with whatever code it is........... DHS designated terrorist code on other lists.
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