“””””Yes, the good ol’ days as a 10 year old watching older cousins and older relatives of friends get called up for Vietnam.”””””
Yet unlike WWII and the Korean War the Vietnam War was overwhelmingly fought by volunteers.
Surely many of your cousins and relatives were enlisting to serve their country and not just being drafted?
I was a senior in high school in 1968. The recruiter’s pitch was “sign up, we guarantee 2 years in Germany. Wait for the letter, we guarantee Vietnam”
I haven’t seen a breakdown. Do you have actual numbers of volunteer vs drafted soldiers and Marines who served in SVN?
They were drafted or enlisted to be able to pick the branch and avoid being drafted into an unknown branch. Although I know of one who caught the eye of a Marine recruiter when enlisting for the AF and got diverted. Good times.