Posted on 01/21/2019 6:13:32 AM PST by TigerClaws
(no link)
Pow wow gives life to past and present
July 2, 2007 | Blade, The (Toledo, OH)
Mr. Phillips served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam from 1972-76
Thanks for posting, I didn’t see that. I could have been composing my post while you wrote that. I am at my desk and double checked my DD-214 in the desk drawer because I was pretty sure my SSN was on it and so I thought that initial statement was not correct. In any case, the vast majority of veterans usually have their DD-214 on them or have easy access to it and can provide it and so dispel any notion as to their veteran status and where they served.
He was born in 1955.
Why doesn’t someone ask him which battalion and unit he was in and where his duty station was?
It is a simple matter for anyone who served in his unit to vouch for his service.
Unless he is another stolen valor candidate.
My SO was 17 when he began his enlistment and served, but he was born in 42.
https://www.vogue.com/projects/13542941/return-to-standing-rock/
This says he was 64. It was printed almost a year ago. Which means he might be 65 now.
I am 67 and joined the NAVY. When I joined, the conflict was at its zenith, and I had already had several friends that came back shot up. Besides a family tradition of Navy, I did not want to be tooling around in the jungles. Never went to Vietnam and did my duty stateside, but believe me, I was yelled at like many others when I was in uniform. My best friends brother was killed there two months after deployment, so my view of the conduct of the war is somewhat clouded. This Indian protestor was certainly old enough to had served. He might very well be a stolen valor kind of guy, but I advise against assuming that anyone is one just because you don’t like his politics. A lot of people came back screwed up.
DD214 time.
I went on active duty in January 1976 and I am a Vietnam ERA veteran, because Congress didn’t end that designation until October 1976. But I am NOT a Vietnam veteran.
I do not carry my DD-214 with me. It is to valuable. Here, you can get your drivers licence annotated with your veteran status and that works for most needs. The DD-214 spends most of its time in a safe. I highly encourage any vets to check if their state supports a state issued ID that supports the annotation.
What,exactly,is a DD-214?
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Yes, my state (PA) does it now as well. However, it’s kind of bogus. This last time I renewed I renewed online. As I was going through it, it asked a question, are you a veteran and do you want this on your license. I said yes and got it, but anybody can get it from what I see. I didn’t have to provide any documentation to get it. Perhaps if you’re caught you could get penalized for lying on a public document but who’s going to catch you?
The US Embassy in then-Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) had a Marine Security Guard company (Company E) guarding it up through the evacuation in 1975. This was probably the largest single concentration of Marines remaining in country after the pull out of Marine combat units several years earlier. There were some other small Marine detachments in country principally involved in providing support to the South Vietnamese. (For example, the Marines in the advisor group made famous by the late Colonel (then Captain) Ripley’s action to destroy the bridge at Dong Ha.)
Age 64 now equals being born in 1954. That makes him 18 (age of enlistment) in 1972 and 21 in 1975. So he could have enlisted during the period of the US involvement in Vietnam and be considered a Vietnam era veteran.
(To be a Vietnam veteran (e.g., actually served in country) is another thing entirely. By early 1973 (the earliest he could show up in South Vietnam assuming an 18th birthday/enlistment in very early 1972), there were only a relative handful of Marines in country. Given his probable low rank (PFC-LCpl?) at the time, Company E is the logical first place to look since the company probably had well over 100+ billets for those ranks.)
Is that right? I did not know that. So, since I enlisted in June 76, I’m considered a Vietnam Era Vet? What a crock.
One other note about the DD-214, why it’s so important and talked of in this thread is that a fellow veteran can tell a lot about someone’s service by simply reading over the DD-214. Many times (not always) it can out a stolen valor person.
That does pose a problem...
Here, you need to present the paper the first time to have your license annotated. After that it is automatic.
Anyway to raise the issue with a government representative like a senator or the governor to have the loophole closed?
Thanks-—seems to be a VERY important document.
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Doubt it. I was in 76-79 Vietnam Era. Evacuation of Saigon April 25th 1975. I’ll be 63 in two weeks, entered Army at 20.
I had a draft card and went thru a couple lotteries. No one was getting drafted.
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