DU Viet Nam vets, families, lovers, war-protestors, etc.: Answer this ..

[DemoTex]

What would you, personally, have done had the fixed Viet Nam tour (12 months Army and AF, 13 months USMC) been extended in the way the Iraq tours have been?

[Xipe Totec]

1. Nothing that could be posted in an open forum,

but happened often enough anyway in Vietnam.

[DemoTex]

3. But voluntary, right?

I was ordered back to RVN by the ASA "hand" several months after my DEROS (critical TS/CRYPTO MOS), but I got the unknowing other "hand", at the Pentagon, to muster me out.

[lpbk2713]

2. I was in the Navy ----- 65 -69

Towards the end I was worried that it might have gotten the best of me. If they had extended me that would have put me over the edge I'm sure.

Now I worry about the effect the BushCo war is having on our current vets. I have to worry how many time bombs is BushCo creating.

[Submariner]

11. I was in the Navy from 65 to 69 too

We were so undermanned for electrician mates, I always had to stand port & starboard watches (6 on, 6 off) underway. The 18 to 20 hour days underway about wore my butt out in 4 years.

I think of the undermanned problem whenever I read the Tom DeLay quote, (paraphrasing) "I couldn't get in the military because all the slots were filled".

[lpbk2713]

14. You probably put in at Rota.

The Canopus was there then.

[Submariner]

15. Never got to the Med

Always back and forth between Havana and the Arctic Circle, with liberties in the Caribbean and Nova Scotia. Closest we got to the Med was sitting off Gibraltar when radio-monitoring the attack on the Liberty in '67.

[jaysunb]

4. If you had a critical MOS,

you were almost be assured of being extended 90 days, plus a second tour was possible. But, believe it or not, lots of guys volunteered for second tours. ...but that's a thread by itself. :shrug:

Had I not been the company "fuck up " I would have been extended. :evilgrin:

[scarletwoman]

5. Same thing I was already doing: helping guys file for C.O. status & protesting in the streets. (nt)

[DemoTex]

8. Dear heart ..

Thank you

[mzmolly]

6. My dad has PTSD after serving one term in Vietnam.

I have no idea what several years would have done to him.

[TahitiNut]

7. (Hmmm..) Maybe I'd have gone totally round the bend and ate one. Maybe not.

Lots of guys had it worse than me. :-( I was getting shat upon from stateside. (Had me looking at my M16.)

[DemoTex]

9. Tim O'Brien comes to mind.

GOING AFTER CACCIATO:HOW TO DO RIGHT IN AN EVIL SITUATION

[TahitiNut]

12. Moral dilemmas are tough under the best of conditions.

They're f*cking crazy-making for 20-somethings in a combat zone. I don't know much about Tim other than that I think I tend to agree with him regarding his attitude towards 'the folks back home.' He get there in '69 just before I left ... infantry/Americal instead of remf USARV/HQ dweeb. (The gulf was wide but respect could bridge it.)

[jlayson]

10. Perish the thought dude

Young and dumb..most are easily led ....but my oh my that Pleiku red

[DemoTex]

13. Indeed. Pleiku. Old haunt.

Pleiku and a flight attendant (on my airline crew) made a friend-for-life of mine of the great Mohammad Ali.

Welcome to DU, sir!

[symbolman]

16. Seriously

I said years ago that the troops need to Shoulder their weapons and head for the ports and airports, and demand to be brought HOME, en masse. That would show those fucks in Washington...

Of course someone would have to be negotiating with the REAL Terrorists in order to secure their safety, don't want a mass of troops taking a hit in one place.

When I was in the service USAF 71-74, I'd grown sick of it the last year, the war was basically over, at least for the AF. So I turned in my two weeks notice and went on strike. I wore the most wrinkled uniforms I could find in the bottom of my duffel bag, no hat, saluted like Monty Python, but at the same time I had them over a barrel. I knew the regs in and out, as I was in Purchasing/Procurement and had to know Walls Full of regs anyway, and I found out that if I showed up for duty for at least One Hour a day that I wasn't technically AWOL. So I'd show up and read comic books at my desk, burnt out from partying until 3am or so.

It was driving them nuts, because soon, a bunch of other troops were doing my thing too - so they hauled me into the base commander's office and made a deal. If I cleaned up my act for 30 days, so as to not act as a lightning rod for the rest of the guys, they'd muster me out a little less than a year early, call it a college deferment of sorts.

It worked. I got my ass out, having no further interest in the military (which was dumb, if I'd stayed another four years and THEN returned as a civilian in my job I'd have been making 80 grand a year in no time, STUPID BOY!).. and went on to ruin the rest of my life. But I got my Honorable discharge, since I'd attained a lot of rank in a short time, they gave me that.

So I guess what I'm really saying to the troops in Iraq is QUIT. Just fucking QUIT! Do it TOGETHER, as a FORCE - do it Gandi STYLE, my fellow future Vets, and SHAME this admin, SHAME the Media to the Point where there is NO DENYING it's a Travesty, and the MURDER of our Troops.

To any Veterans scandalized by that, sorry about it, but we both fought for free speech, and there it is :)