[laconic]

Thank you, Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara.

[ASA Vet]

Not me! I successfully dodged the draft.

[PROCON]

Wow, 50 years.

I honor my brothers-in-arms who didn't make it back home.

Welcome Home to those who did.

[centurion316]

A significant event, but of course, U.S. troops had already been in Vietnam for years, as Advisors, helicopter crews, signal, engineer and MP units and many other functions. The marine battalions marked the introduction of the first infantry formations, followed shortly thereafter by the arrival of the 173d Airborne Brigade and the 1st Air Cavalry Division.

[ChildOfThe60s]

My father (USMC) was there in late 63 & early 64 as an “adviser”. Damn near got killed.

Came home in 64 and said we were going to get into it *full scale* and throw a lot of lives away for *nothing*. And he predicted it would all be on the heads of politicians (specifically LBJ at the time).

But as we all know, politicians don’t listen to experienced combat officers. They know everything, why should they?

[DonaldC]

What a waste of resources that was.

[tet68]

Went over in May of 66, stayed till May of 68.
Kind of glad I was there early, it was a different
war then.

Tet68 USMC VMA-223 MAG 12 Chu Lai RVN.
Ooooorah!

[Tupelo]

My younger brother was one of those Marines. Thank God, he managed to survive his year there.

[Jet Jaguar]

Active Duty/Retiree ping.

[Mastador1]

Don’t they mean since combat troops were acknowledged?

[zeestephen]

It's important to recall that 400 “non-combat” American military personnel died in Vietnam before 1965.

While researching the number above, I came across a statistic I was not aware of.

Almost 20% of the 58,000 dead Americans died by non-combat accidents, disease, or suicide. The total is just under 11,000.

Here's another statistic people may not be aware of.

Roughly 3 million Americans served in Vietnam.

But only 1.5 million Americans ever came under direct enemy fire.

[ASA Vet]

In early May 1961, a U.S. military aircraft taxied toward a well-guarded terminal building.
The plane slowed to a halt; steps were maneuvered up to its side, and the door was pulled open.
The tropical night air was heavy and dank, and the moon shone dimly through high thin clouds.
On board the aircraft were ninety-two members of a specially selected team.
The men were dressed in indistinguishable dark suits with white shirts and dark ties, and each man carried a new red U.S. diplomatic passport inside his breast pocket.
The men held copies of their orders and records in identical brown Manila envelopes,
and each man's medical records were stamped "If injured or killed in combat, report as training accident in the Philippines"
In such clandestine fashion, the first fully operational
U.S. military unit arrived at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in South Vietnam.

The unit was so highly classified even its name was top-secret.
It was given a codename, a cover identity to hide the true nature of its mission.
The unit's operation was housed in a heavily-guarded compound near Saigon,
and within two days of its arrival, Phase I was implemented.

Its operatives were intercepting Viet Cong manual Morse communications,
analyzing it for the intelligence it contained and passing the information to the U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group-Vietnam.

The Army Security Agency was on duty.