[9876543210]

blueballsdc,

Originally Posted by blueballsdc

Both of which get their info from the DOD. They are fairly reputable.

I think the keyword here is "fairly". DOD reputable? That could easily be argued.

However that includes several thousand that were transitioning out of the country. So I tend to use the other numbers as I don't consider troops that have been disarmed and sitting at a base well outside of the combat zones waiting for a plane or boat back home as being involved.

Having known quite a few people who were in Viet Nam I think they would say that there were really no areas in the country that were completely safe. Not even the airport in Saigon which was mortared quite often. So you never knew where the "combat zone" really was. You could be sitting in downtown Saigon at noon having a coffee and, all of a sudden, the restauraunt across the street blew up. That is the nature of insurgencies.

Of course it is always difficult to determine exact numbers as we could argue all day and night about who was involved. (Do pilots flying from carriers in the South China Sea count? How about B-52s that launched from another country?)

Of course they should be counted. Pilots were flying all kinds of missions all over N and S Viet Nam. The carriers they were based on wouldn't have been there if there wasn't a war. Of course you now have to count all the people on the boats protecting the carrier.

And the b-52's? Certainly they and their support crews have to be counted. Later on in the war the N. Vietnamese were given missiles which could knock them out of the air. So there were a lot of pilots and crews that spent time in the "Hanoi Hilton".

I have a great interest in the Vietnam War as I have a couple of cousins whose names are on the wall in DC. Also my father, both his brothers, one of his sisters, and her husband all served in and around Vietnam. Funny how nobody had any problems sending them there despite all being married and having children.

I'm glad to hear that some of the younger generations do have an interest in this subject because it was an important time in American history. The population was just as divided as today (maybe more-so) but the difference was that people then were more willing to stand up to authority. People went to jail or died for their beliefs then. You don't seem much of that today.

I guess we didn't have the right connections. Either that or we actually believe in serving our country (or we are all mighty stupid).

Well, knowing nothing about your family my guess is that they probably didn't have the connections. Everybody knew back then that if you were a connected family and your kid was drafted that you sent them to the Air National Guard. That was no secret.

I was lucky and had a 300+ draft number. So I had few worries. But sub 100 and you either volunteered, were drafted, left the country or were well connected. I'd really like to know GWB's draft number. That would tell alot.

Stupid? No. Just didn't have a lot of options. Viet Nam wasn't WW II. There was very little honor there.