My day as a Vietnam veteran

[musicisgood]

My story. Today in 1996 , March 19, I got my DD214 after servicing in the US Military.
This is a song I wrote about my life as a US Veteran of a Foreign War.

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[johnnyG]

So you were discharged in March, 1996.

What date did you enter the military--how many years did you do?

Also, when exactly did you serve in Vietnam?

I ask since I joined in January of 1971, and I joined because my draft number was 11. And I didn't want infantry (as a draftee), or worse, to get drafted into the marines. So I signed up for three years, and was able to choose my MOS.

 

[Uncle Frank]

I went Navy 69-73 as my draft number was 25. I signed for 6 years to do nuke subs. For some reason they decided I needed to be a communication Technician and dropped me down to 4 years. I always felt a bit guilty for having a wonderful life for 2 of my 4 years in Japan while others fought & died in the Jungle.

 

[musicisgood]

we are both vets of the Vietnam War
I thank you for protecting the shores of America from the north Vietman atacking Americal with them baboom rafts.
as you know we were all conned

 

[Uncle Frank]

Two things I've noticed in life. If politicians/civilians who are clueless are able to tell the military or law enforcement how to do their job , it usually doesn't end well. I'm not saying there should be no oversight , just way less input from untrained and inexperienced people.

 

[salyavin]

I met some people last year who used to listen to Russia via the listening station in Wakkanai decades ago probably Vietnam War era judging by their age. I wonder if that is quite active these days.

 

[Uncle Frank]

In the 70's we had spy bases all over the world. Comm Tecs had several branches with "I" branchers being the ones who listened in on spoken languages. When I was in Fukuoka , Hawaii was our control center. We had giant antenna systems used to pick up radio signals from long distances and designed to be used for direction finding. By the 90's pretty much all of the bases were closed down and everything was done by space sats. Any communist country that sent out morse , it was copied on a typewriter to paper and then sent on to the NSA for decoding. I tracked Russian subs and nuke bombers when ever they took off. It was said a good direction reading could tell you where a Russian subs was within 100 yards. Whenever a radar system was activated or a missile launched , they gave off signals that "T" branchers would copy. That info was used to be able to knock out their equipment. Our subs would sit off the coast of Russia , China or Vietnam for months at a time coping all types of signals to be used against our enemies. Back then , Russia's big sub base was on an island and there was a big cable running to the island. A special sub was designed to drop down on it and we tapped into the cable to know what was up with them. For a young hick from Maine , it was all pretty cool stuff. As I said , now 90% of it is all down from space so all I did is declassified and long gone.

 

[johnnyG]

I was in Beijing '82-83, and everyone used shortwave (china also used it domestically). I go into class and all the students would know the news of the day, via BBC or VOA. The students at the time were very well informed. I listened some, but was looking for music more than news. Radio moscow had some great jazz hours, and one program, Moscow Mailbag, was a must-listen for my group of teachers there.

Joe Adamov - Wikipedia

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[johnnyG]

Back to Vietnam, from what I read these days if you served then, you're included and considered to be a vietnam veteran.

I disagree with this, and feel a little strongly about it. I was sent to korea, never made it anywhere close to vietnam, was never involved in support (even indirect). I'm a vietnam-era vet, not a vietnam vet. I've known more than a few actual vietnam vets, including my older brother, who still tells some stories, and there's no way I'd call myself a vietnam vet--I'd consider it an insult to the people who were actually there, a misrepresentation, an ethical faux pas. Maybe since I was in korea, and you know, only an armistice so that war is not actually over, I'm a korean war vet?!?

Yeah, about as much as I'm a vietnam vet...

Horse hooey.

 

[Uncle Frank]

I thought this patch was interesting. I have never seen anyone having one or heard anyone saying they were a "cold war vet".



I do always wear this cap. A patient bought it for me many years ago and I still treasure it.



My rate badge in the Navy.

 

[mdchachi]

Back to Vietnam, from what I read these days if you served then, you're included and considered to be a vietnam veteran.

I disagree with this, and feel a little strongly about it. I was sent to korea, never made it anywhere close to vietnam, was never involved in support (even indirect). I'm a vietnam-era vet, not a vietnam vet. I've known more than a few actual vietnam vets, including my older brother, who still tells some stories, and there's no way I'd call myself a vietnam vet--I'd consider it an insult to the people who were actually there, a misrepresentation, an ethical faux pas. Maybe since I was in korea, and you know, only an armistice so that war is not actually over, I'm a korean war vet?!?

Yeah, about as much as I'm a vietnam vet...

Horse hooey.

Do non-Vietnam war vets such as yourself get VA benefits? (I mean assuming you were stateside.)
I always assumed all veterans got benefits but a friend of mine said he doesn't. He served in the 80s and even saw some action in the sense that he landed on the beaches of Panama in Operation Just Cause when he was a Marine.

 

[johnnyG]

I did, but same as you, I've heard that the system has changed. IIRC, I got four years of checks, which paid for my BA, three years done straight thru (incl summers) and a year of grad school. Also, Illinois (at the time) waived tuition for vietnam era people (state school, champaign-urbana), so for the BA I only paid various non tuition fees. There were also some grants at the time (Pell?, since I was older/independent). I did get an assistantship for the rest of grad school, but it all meant no part time jobs, and no debt.

 

[Yama Imo]

... there's no way I'd call myself a vietnam vet--I'd consider it an insult to the people who were actually there, a misrepresentation, an ethical faux pas.

My sentiments exactly. I am an Air Force veteran, 1970-1978, therefore, like you, I am a Vietnam Era Veteran, but since was never sent to Vietnam I am not a Vietnam veteran. I know many Vietnam veterans, and out of respect for them, I consider it a crime of stolen valor for anyone who did not actually serve in Vietnam to claim or imply a status of Vietnam Veteran.

BTW, I joined because my draft lottery number was under 100. I didn't join because of any sense of patriotism, I did so because service was inevitable, and I wanted to improve my odds of survival by having some control over what my job in the military would be.

 

[mdchachi]

What are the odds of all of you having draft numbers under 100?! Maybe it was a trick to get you to enlist.

 

[johnnyG]

What are the odds of all of you having draft numbers under 100?! Maybe it was a trick to get you to enlist.

Depends if it was random or not, and at the time, number up to like 120-130 were still in danger--not "safe" from being called.

And,

It happened that November and December births, or numbers 306 to 366, were assigned mainly to lower draft order numbers representing earlier calls to serve. This led to complaints that the lottery was not truly random as the legislation required. Only five days in December—December 2, 12, 15, 17, and 19—were higher than the last call number of 195. Had the days been evenly distributed, 14 days in December would have been expected to remain uncalled. From January to December, the rank of the average draft pick numbers were 5, 4, 1, 3, 2, 6, 8, 9, 10, 7, 11, and 12. A Monte Carlo simulationfound that the probability of a random order of months being this close to the 1–12 sequence expected for unsorted slips was 0.09%.[8]​ An analysis of the procedure suggested that "The capsules were put in a box month by month, January through December, and subsequent mixing efforts were insufficient to overcome this sequencing".[6]​

Draft lottery (1969) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

​

 

[musicisgood]

Thanks for the explanations. From now on I'm a Vietnam era Veteran. I served in Thailand, Okinawa and Mainland Japan. On my DD Form 214 it says this: Indochina or Korea Service since August 5, 1964. It's marked "Yes", with the amount of time I served in Thailand. I guess all these years is where I thought I was a Vietnam Veteran, but now I know different. Found something out on this forum.

 

[Yama Imo]

What are the odds of all of you having draft numbers under 100?! Maybe it was a trick to get you to enlist.

I never really gave the reasoning or methodology of the lottery much thought.

On the evening of the drawing, 12/1/1969, I was in my sophomore year at college, and a group of us were sitting in a dorm room listening to the radio as the birthdays were drawn in numerical order. Having been born in the early morning hours, I lamented my laziness in departing from the womb; for fi I had hastened my departure by only a couple of hours, my lottery number would have been in the mid 300's.

Even before the drawing, that was a time of turmoil for me, in that I had already decided to change direction in my life and not return to school after that year (long story that I won't go into in this post). This meant that when I did not enroll in college the next fall, I would no longer be eligible for a student deferment. So, I had some time to think about alternatives, ie stay in school, join the Air Force or Navy, or take my chances with the draft. Other popular options of the day like desertion, faking an illness, or some other kind of dodge like reporting to the draft physical feigning insanity with crap and urine in my drawers were never under consideration. That worked for some, and if those individuals were ok with taking such actions so be it, but as human beings, we are all different, and for me, even though I thought that our foreign policy in Southeast Asia at the time was severely misguided, and even though I really preferred not to participate at all, I still had to choose a course of action that would allow me to be able to look at myself in the mirror every day.

So, as it happened, the next fall I received a letter from the Selective Service board, telling me that I had been re-classified 1-Y. I figured that was an administrative error, because this classification was usually given to people with some kind of impairment that wasn't bad enough for 4F (not qualified for military service). Sure enough, in December, I received another letter re-classifying me 1-A (available for military service). Knowing that the next letter would be my notice to report for duty, I immediately drove to the nearest Air Force recruiter, and signed up. A few days later, on a cloudy day about a week and a half before Christmas, I had been processed, sworn in, and was on my way to Lackland AFB.