it depends on what the meaning of "be in" means.
Somebody has to train the Ukes on the complex armaments we are sending them. They also have to be trained in comms in order to coordinate surface to air and surface to surface weapon systems in conjunction with logistics and mobile light and heavy infantry.
It's not just picking up a radio and saying.. "hey, blow that thingy over the river"...or "hey do you guys see those things falling out of the sky?... would you stop them please.
Our country has a history of not "being there" or "not being in" a country. My pop back in the late 50s and early 60's did TDY (temporary duty assignments) in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.....spoke Spanish, liked the jungle and hated communists.... if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.
But the fact that even when he went to train in Singapore with the Brits our country wasn't really "there" there. He was just advising and training. Kind of like a vacation.... with camping... and weapons. If he was killed, it would have been a training "accident" as he explained it to me 40 years after the fact. But if you look at his "record". He only served in Lebanon, Korea, doesn't mention Laos or "Indochina"... but does include Vietnam.
There are a lot of "trip wires" that our government uses in order to justify "wars" or conflict resolution. It's what we "do".
It is early in the morning here but it looked like you made it clear your dad wasn’t a tripwire but then said he was.
I agree with your part about if he or an advisor is killed it doesn’t lead to war, it is treated as an advisor being killed.