VIETNAM VETERANS GET MEDALS FOR HEROIC ACTIONS...

[happyslug]

41. I am tried of hearting this, people volunteered so they could avoid the infantry and thus Combat

When the draft was in full swing, if you enlisted you could pick what military specialty you wanted to be. This could be anti-aircraft (Not used in Vietnam), maintenance (which even could be a 9-18 month long training course), to clerk-typist.

Worse, if you could find a military specialty that did NOT interact with platoon or smaller infantry units, you could avoid most of the combat (Artillery was one branch, except in some small cases of mortar attacks, artillery rarely if ever came under enemy fire, through artillery was used extensively in Vietnam and in Khe Sanh in particular).

In the Civil War 90% of the troops were actual combat troops, but Vietnam 90% of the troops were support troops to the actual combat troops. Thus there were a lot of options to avoid actual combat even if you ended up in Vietnam. Look at the numbers you actually cite. Of the 8.7 million men and women who served in Vietnam, ONLY 3.4 million served "In country" i.e. actually sent into combat ( and most of these 3.4 million served on bases in country as opposed to actually engaging the Viet Cong).

We also have to remember that except for the Tet Offensive, the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers were under orders NOT to engage Americans if it could be prevented. They POLITICAL objective was to defeat the South Vietnamese Government NOT to fight Americans. Thus one tactic used by the Viet Cong was to vacate an area when US Forces entered. Why stay and fight when you knew you were going to be defeated? The Vietcong left and returned when US forces left (The US used similar tactics during the American Revolution in Northern New Jersey and along the Hudson River when the British held New York City AND in the Carolinas when the British held Charleston South Carolina).

This tactic meant the US had to adopt some very quick movement of troops (i.e the extensive use of Helicopters in Vietnam) in attempts to pin down these enemy forces and destroy them. The use of Helicopters also had two side affects:

First even less fear of attacks on American bases, thus if you were assigned to the base your chances of being killed or wounded dropped like a rock, and

Second, massive increase in the need for support troops to maintain those helicopters, the bases the helicopters worked out of and other support, including fuel, for those helicopters. Thus more troops who would never see combat.

Sorry, once you realized HOW people avoided the draft, and that one way was to enlist and select a non-combat specialty, you quickly see more and more draftees ended up in infantry units. Furthermore by enlisting rather then waiting to be drafted you had a choice in what you would be doing while in the Army (i,e, select you army specialty). Thus enlisting can make it harder for the Army to send you to Vietnam AND make it harder for you to see actually combat if you did go. Thus enlisting was a way to avoid the draft and its bad connotation.

Side note: As US infantry units declined in performance in Vietnam after Tet, Special forces increased their own tempo in an attempt to off set the drop off in US Infantry quality after Tet. You had to volunteer for Special Forces thus a "Volunteer" group, but Special forces were never big enough to off set the decline in US Infantry after Tet.

Side note: The drop off of US Infantry after Tet appears to have nothing to do with Tet itself, but that the troops in those units were reflecting the fact that by the Summer of 1968 the majority of Americans had come out against the War (Prior to the Summer of 1968 the Majority of Americans still supported the war in Vietnam). That is one of the side affects of an draftee universal service army. It is as good and often better then an all volunteer force IF THE PEOPLE SUPPORTS THE WAR. The reason is the enlisted ranks of the Army and the people are one and the same. Thus the US had to pull out of Vietnam by 1972 for both the American People and the Army enlisted ranks wanted out.

One of the reasons to go to an All volunteer army AFTER Vietnam was that if the troops were sent into a war the American people did not support (Iraq and Afghanistan) the army would last a lot longer (in both cases over 10 years when the Majority of Americans did not support those wars).

One of The argument for the draft is that US troops had to be withdraw within four years of the American People opposing the war, but here we are still fighting in Afghanistan more then 10 years after polls in the US showed that the majority of Americans opposed the war.