Posted on 01/21/2019 6:13:32 AM PST by TigerClaws
I have seen two references as to the age of (Native American) Nathan Phillips, the professional protester who has once again stumbled into the limelight of racial politics. He was allegedly harassed by college students in 2015.
Several new stories say he is 64 years old and I have seen a 2000 article from an Omaha newspaper saying that he was 45 years old. So let’s say he is 64.
Most stories about Nathan refer to him as a Viet Nam vet. Several refer to him as a Marine. I am 66 years old and know personally, of no one my age who went to Viet Nam. Several friends joined the various services right after graduation – 1972.
Here is one of the hundreds of articles about the protester confronting the boys from Covington Catholic High School. The Journal Star has apparently not seen the video of Phillips confronting the students (below).
I checked some sources about the last combat troops in Viet Nam. Here is one a person has put his name to. It has details.
Steven,
Thanks for taking the time to ask this!
The question asked when the last US ground combat troops left Vietnam. We gave the correct answer, ie 1972. The last American combat unit was a task force from the 3d Bn, 21st Inf Regt and battery B, 3d Bn, 82d Field Artillery Regt which had been stationed in Danang (I commanded battery C, 3d Bn, 82d FA and B btry was our ‘sister’ battalion). These were the last US ground combat units in Vietnam, and I was there when they left in August of 1972. As a matter of fact, when my unit disbanded in June 1972, we sent B Btry about 15 of our guys who stayed with B Btry until it left in August. Of note: these C btry guys took along a US flag that had flown over my firebase and put it up over the B Btry firebase where it flew until the task force departed in Aug 72. Therefore, the last American flag to fly over a US firebase in Vietnam was mine.
Some American troops (no combat troops) were still in Vietnam until they left in 1973.
Thanks again for the question.
Jerry Morelock Armchair General Senior Historian
Being a Viet Nam era guy who had a draft number pulled, I began to notice guys much younger than me claim to be Viet Nam vets. Some would have had to be 15 or 16.
At 64 years old now, Nathan Phillips would have possibly been 17 years old when the last US combat troops were leaving that country. He should point that out to a reporter.
Nathan Phillips likes to talk about politics and race. How about some journalist finally asks him about his service in Marine Corps duty in Viet Nam?
HOLLYWOOD Native Activist Who Harassed Catholic Teens Identified As Actor From 2012 Skrillex Video About Attacking Police
Additionally, this is not the first time that Phillips has been at the center of controversy involving alleged racism against the Native Population. In 2015, Phillips claimed that he was “bombarded by racial slurs” by students at Eastern Michigan University.
I enlisted and went to basic on my 17th birthday in 66 and am 69 now. Don’t see how he was in theater at 17. Of course he looks older than dirt so it begs the question how old he really is.
Interesting. My memory is hazy. Got me to looking up my records. Travels orders etc...
My active duty was to end 06/17/1971.
Got sent home, as an individual,(unit was still there) in May of 1971.
My orders were cut 5/8/1971 to leave in-country 05/09/71. They gave me credit through 05/12/71.(maybe time spent in Okinawa coming home ?). The Marines released me from active duty a month early - 05/17/71.
I didn’t realize we were that close to coming home as a unit.
Eddie Murphy was a Marine Recon Ranger in Vietnam, just like Chief Stolen Valor.
(At least, he played one in Trading Places.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKtjBqJ4NxA
The Vietnam era is considered, I think, by the Feds as 1961-1975.
I don’t remember when the term “Vietnam Era Vet” started - maybe to circumvent Stolen Valor accusations ?
I’m 62. Graduated from high school in 1973. Graduated from UCSD in 1976. I had my 1A card and waited for the lottery numbers. Mine was 319.
No, nothing but a moron uses the term Vietnam veteran to describe someone who is merely in the military of one of the countries involved. I understand checking the Box on forms for the federal government that say “vietnam era veteran”.
But the term Vietnam veteran has a pretty specific meaning
gateway is saying the DOB is 02/22/1954 and that this nut claimed to be some recon ranger:
and: https://www.democraticunderground.org/100211698735
I do. My son is a Marine Vet - was in 'nam - and he will be 66 in one month...he went in at 17 - with permission.
Hello all, found this place while trying to research this Nathan Phillips guy. I’ve been seeing him called a Vietnam war veteran, then saw him in an interview say he was a “Vietnam times vet” and that set off red flags. My father and brother both served in Vietnam and I knew that’s not how an actual Vietnam vet talks.
So I started looking into him, here is what I found. He says he joined the Marines when he was 17. So first I tried to find out how old he is. In a story about him from April of 2018 it says he had just turned 64, so that would put his DOB at April of 1954 and would mean he joined in 1971 or 72. He says in the video interview someone else posted here that he served from 1972 to 1976. So if he was 17 when he joined it would have been between January and April of 72.
I knew things were pretty much over in Vietnam as far as combat by April of 71 and they were pulling troops out instead of sending them in so what this Phillips guy is said to have done seems fishy as hell to me. I saw one article that said he was a “combat infantryman” in Vietnam.
I think this guy is full of it about ever having been in Vietnam. Hopefully the information I have found helps. I asked my brother some things about it, he was 101st Airborne in ‘68, but being Army he didn’t really know much about information concerning Marines.
My brother was born on February 13, 1944, and enlisted in the U.S. Army when he was 20 or 21. He was in Vietnam ‘66-67, came home, and was stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado for another year until he was discharged. He’d be almost 75 now.
He sounds like a phony, and he should at least be called to explain.
Someone could have his age wrong. I am Army and not Marine, but there’s always the possibility of special operations involved longer than any specific ground unit.
I’ll give the benefit of the doubt, something they did not do for these Covington Catholic kids.
according to the link to Marine Corps history in this post, there were less than 500 Marines left in-country by 07/1971. http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/3721619/posts?page=91#91
as an aside...
I was sitting on I-Corps ammo dump with an undermanned platoon.
We were relieved by an army airborne company, probably the 101st, in March-April-ish 1971.
Thanks again.
You are right. A Vietnam war veteran is not the same as being a Vietnam era veteran.
Democrats wanted to turn the Catholic kids video into a big deal by claiming that the ‘victim’ was a Vietnam veteran. In any case, veteran or not, the American Indian was the bully, and an embarrassment to fellow Marines all over, including me, who actually served in the Marines in Vietnam, 1967-1968 (over a year) in the Da-Nang and Chu-Lai areas.
BTW...Welcome to Free Republic.
Thanks you-—I’m learning something today.
.
I was there late 1968-1969 with 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines (southern I Corps (Da Nang, An Hoa, Hill 55) and northern II Corps (Batangas Peninsula)).
Heap big buffalo chips.
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