How come Gomer Pyle never went to Vietnam?

[TheMightyFavog]

Just lucky, or just well connected?

[Major Nikon]

1. Probably for the same reason Beetle Bailey never went to Korea

[TeamPooka]

2. Dondi spent more time in a war zone than Bailey. nt

[Recursion]

6. At least Terminal Lance went to Iraq... (nt)

[GreydeeThos]

3. In the un-aired final season, Gomer finds his destiny

After yeas of Sgt Carter pronouncing him stupid, Gomer reenlists to get military occupation specialty 0231, Intelligence Specialist. During the first phase of IS school, Gomer is talked into volunteering for very dangerous and Top Secret human experiments in the CIA's MKUltra program. When one of his many exposures to weaponized LSD goes awry, Gomer is involved in a specular accident ending in the explosion of an electric generating plant and the burning to the ground the CIA's laboratory at 29 Palms. He is found unfit for continued military service, is discharged, and does not see a day in Vietnam.

Gomer returns to Mayberry where he lives at the end of a dirt road. He sets up an amateur astronomy observatory and vows "never to see the light of day again".

[Jeebo]

4. I never saw that episode.

I thought I had seen every episode of Gomer Pyle, USMC, but apparently I missed that one somehow. -- Ron

[Recursion]

5. Only about 1/3rd of Marines on active duty in the period did

That's higher than the proportion for active duty military personnel in general, which is about 1/4.

9 million and change personnel served on active duty between 1964 and 1975, and 2.7 million military personnel deployed to southeast Asia over that same period. Europe for most of that period had more servicemembers stationed in it than Vietnam, and Okinawa in many periods had more Marines stationed in it than Vietnam.

This gets to a larger perception issue that we tend to look at the branches in terms of the combat arms components, but only 1/4 of the Marine Corps is combat arms (this ratio was slightly higher 50 years ago, IIRC), and the Marine Corps famously keeps that ratio significantly higher than the other branches. The majority of military personnel, then and now, were in support & logistics roles, which are often deployed in surprising places.

[malthaussen]

7. Well, I haven't seen the show for years...

... but IIRC, Gomer was a common grunt. IIARC (If I Also Remember Correctly , the Marines had some difficulty filling combat roles in the period. So Pyle not visiting sunny SE Asia is less-easily accounted for than if he had been, say, an ATC.

-- Mal

[Recursion]

8. He's clearly in an infantry platoon, but I don't think his MOS is ever stated

Even so: only two of the three Marine divisions deployed any troops to Vietnam, and the majority of regiments did not deploy.

[malthaussen]

11. Right, but the personnel did...

... one was hardly attached to a given battalion for life. Mind you, I was too young to pay attention for most of the war, but I suspect there was a bit of transferring among units. Since tours were for one year, but service for two or three, it is possible that many of the personnel in the unengaged units were either coming back or getting ready for combat assignments.

-- Mal

[A HERETIC I AM]

9. Because he could sing

Needed for the Marine Corps Choir

[Kaleva]

10. Many of the Marines seen in the intro did serve in 'Nam. Some were KIA.

"Jim Nabors didn’t like watching the opening scene of the introduction to the show, which showed the Marines marching, since several of those soldiers had been killed in Vietnam later."

https://nostalgia049.wordpress.com/2014/07/07/sgt-carter-actor-frank-sutton-not-good-enough-for-marines/

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

12. Ummmmmmmmmmm not to belabor the point

but Marines aren't soldiers.
USMC 1968-72