I hope you didn't misunderstand my post..
It was NOT intended to dispute your observations in your experience..
I was only attempting to give a different experience, in a different area in a different branch of the service -- involving only those persons personally observed...
There is no doubt that others had experiences different from mine and yours.....
My post was an attempt to state that Murtha - in Intelligence -- could in fact have been exposed to enemy action ANYWHERE in I Corps ---- even if he spent most of his time in DaNang...
There is no doubt every branch had plenty of worthless POS that had been elevated to Officer status --- I consider it my good fortune to have never served under one...
Welcome home
Semper Fi
I know were you are coming from, brother, most of my cousins and friends are Marines, I didn't serve in I Corps and I wasn't a Marine.
The point I was trying to make is why would an Intellegence Officer be in a place that he was not needed until he was needed.
Both you and I know, as does every Viet Nam Vet, that a lot of REMF's went forward to get some gold, in the Army it was the CIB, in the Marines it was (?), I don't know.
The point I trying to make is that a DD 214, except for the discharge code proves nothing, it is mearly a list.