Why did you go to Vietnam

[inhonurofswa]

I know a lot of people were drafted. But you see my uncle's friends had told him they were going to all sign up and they wanted him to go with them. So they went one day together, my uncle's friends told him to sign up first and then they would sign after him, so my uncle signed up and did whatever process you have to go through, and the rest of his friends backed out, not one of them signed up to go. So he went to Vietnam and died, having only having 585 days left to be there, he sent my grandma and grandpa a little not that said
The Soldier
Ever since I was a little boy
I wanted to be a soldier,
Being a soldier is my whole life,
I love being a soldier
I'm proud to be a soldier,
There isn't anything in this whole wide world,
That I'd rather be than a soldier
....EXPECT A CIVILIAN

Then he wrote out 585 Days and I'll be out.
I've only met one of his friends, and he holds the POW/MIA flag during the Memorial Day service at the cemetary. But the other friend ended up marrying his wife only a few months after he died. I'm very upset and angry about what happened, and I think that is why I do have friends but I'm not as attached to them as most, because I know what they are capable of. I never met his wife, but yet I don't have any desire to. Now, I am just curious about how you all got there, did you sign up or were you drafted, did you go with friends, or go it alone? Thank you for your responses.

Taylor

[b3196]

Taylor
Drafted.....Met up with 3 other guys from NY in basic. Then on to AIT together, then on to Vietnam. One didn't make it back. His name is on the wall.
In reference to your uncle's friends......They were not his friend. Your uncle was a hero. They were cowards.
Bob K

[SuperScout]

One of the reasons I volunteered for Vietnam was to keep my older brother out of the war zone. He had just completed a 3-year tour in the Peace Corps, and was still eligible for the draft. If I was in Vietnam, the worst that could have happened to him was to get drafted and be sent to Korea.

[1CAVCCO15MED]

I was a medic. I decided I did not want to just be in the Vietnam Era. I wanted to help.

[exlrrp]

I guess you could say it was curiosity.
The first time, I volunteered because I was curious to see what war was like and how well I'd do in it.
The 2d time, 35 years later, I was curious to see what Vietnam was like 35 years later.
Next time, it may be for more curiosity about places I never saw.

Curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back
Not content to just read American history, I elected to make some of my own

[MontanaKid]

I was 18, fresh out of high school. I joined up to go someplace, be somebody. I had no aptitude at the time for college education, or any specific career. But I had been fascinated with military history for some time. There was a war on and I was going to go see it.

[Stick]

First my two oldest brothers enlisted in the Air Force but Terry got booted out when he was riding his motorcycle through the barracks at some base in Kansas. Third brother enlisted in the Naval Reserve but then found that he could go through OCS in the Army if he wanted to and he went on to Ft. Benning, learned how to jump from airplanes and got his Gold bar in Airborn Special Forces (he died years later at the rank of LtCol. due to the effects of Agent Orange poisoning that he got while on Skeleton Mountain in the beautiful Republic of South Vietnam in 1968), Billy went into the Navy as soon as he graduated from High School because he figured that a boat would keep him out of range if he had to go to the South China Sea. Me, I was 1A with no hope of going to College due to lack of bucks, 5 ft. 5 and 1/2 in. and weighing in at 138 lbs. I heard about little guys going into holes in the ground in the beautiful Southeast Asian wonderlands carrying nothing but a 45 cal. pistol and a flashlight or in the dark of the tunnel and not coming out whole so I enlisted to be a little 71b, clerk typest cause the recruiter told me that they don't shoot clerks.

[WateringHole]

You asked "why did you go to Vietnam ?". I'm not a Vietnam Vet, but in my openion, for the great majority of the military personells who went there, I believe the best answer would be because Uncle Sam "ordered" them to go there.

[Packo]

Taylor,

Per capita there were more volunteers for Vietnam than WWII. It is a myth we were all sent there kicking and screaming. I passed up a full scholarship to Valdosta State to play professional baseball. Not in college I was 1A for the draft. When I got drafted I went down to the Recruiter and signed up for another year to "guarantee" Jump School. (Parachute School) I enlisted for "Airborne Unassigned", which meant Infantry. I wanted to go to Vietnam because my uncle was in Korea, my father WWII, Grandfather WWI, Great Great Grandfather War Between the States, and my G....G....G....G Grandfather The Revolution. I felt it was my duty to go. It was amazing the amount of men I met there that felt the same way. We all learned quickly that it was nothing like we thought. I would have been upset if I wouldn't have got orders to Vietnam. James has hit it on the head for many of us. We played war as children and many of us wanted to see it, and see how we'd do. Your uncle was a hero, and Bob said it, his friends were cowards.

Pack

[MORTARDUDE]

I was stupid and dropped out of college and got drafted. Just stupid.

Larry