What percentage of U.S. draftees during the Vietnam war actually went to Vietnam? Did a person have a better chance of not going to Vietnam if he enlisted instead of waiting for the draft?
I always wondered how enlisted Marines or soldiers ended up being stationed in Europe or Korea or guarding embassies in those days.
I enlisted in the AF after receiving notice to report for and passing my Army physical. The reason I joined the AF was specifically to avoid Vietnam and I was successful. Had I voluntarily joined the Army, I believe my chances of duty in the war would have been above 70% and with the Marines, probably above 90%. They needed an abundance of warm bodies to pull triggers and shed blood.
Anecdote but…my dad and his best friend signed up instead of being drafted in 1968. Dad went to Vietnam and best friend went to Germany. Dad is still bitter.
i believe when you enlisted you specified where you wanted to go or what you wanted to do. unless the military had serious need otherwise you might get one of those choices.
people would also enlist in the Air Force or Navy which had a lower percentage of people in combat.
people also joined the National Guard, they weren’t called up like they are in recent times.
There are billets all over the world that need to be filled. It’s the luck of the draw, really. Many billets go unfilled in wartime, since replacements are needed in combat zones. It makes no difference whether or not you’re drafted, you’re sent where the government needs you, and just because you happen to draw Germany as a first assignment, that doesn’t mean you won’t eventually rotate to a combat unit on your next tour of duty.
Embassy duty for Marines is (supposedly) for the cream of the crop, and must be specifically applied for. Many apply, few are chosen.
According to this information from the Vietnam Veterans of Florida Coalition, 38% of draftees served in Vietnam.
In terms of soldiers as a whole, 8,744,000 GIs were on active duty during the war, and 3,403,100 (including 514,300 offshore) personnel served in the Southeast Asia Theater, which meant that of all soldiers who served during the war years, 38.9% served in theater.
This seems to suggest to me that you had a pretty much equal chance of going to Vietnam and surrounding areas whether you were drafted or enlisted.
My brother who doesn’t post here went to Germany. He takes full credit for the fact that the Vietnamese did not take over Germany.
I was levied to vietnam for all my anti war protests I had thousands of anti war newspapers sent to troops in Germany and illegally breaking into my locker and finding a letter from the editor thanking me to the troop roster, my life was threatened and I was sent to vietnam. But not before I had a congressional investigation and had to be put in a non combat zone due to the threats and had a good time being lifeguard at Cam Rhan Bay and surfed my brians out and was only shot at by my side. Good story.
The conventional wisdom was to try to enlist in the Navy (first choice) or Air Force, because you were less likely to end up in ground action.
National Guard and Reserve units were full, and had waiting lists. The general feeling was that you had to have some sort of connection to get into one of those units.
That left the Army and the Marines. During Vietnam, even the Marines (normally the Marines had to turn away recruits) were drafting. We have a local newspaper columnist who says he voted for Nixon, because Nixon had a secret plan to end the war – which ended up being drafting the columnist into the Marines and sending him into combat.
A tour of duty in Vietnam generally didn’t last for more than a year, so it would be normal for a serviceman (either enlisted or draft) to spend only part of his hitch in Vietnam, and the rest at another billet.
A friend of mine was a Marine in Vietnam. He was assigned as an embassy guard after being wounded in combat. (Didn’t work out well for him either. He was assigned to an embassy in Africa where he was wounded again in an anti-American riot.)
That was my strategy. Unfortunately, when the recruiter and I settled on me joining as a designated Group 8 (Seabee), he neglected to tell me exactly what it is the Seabees do. Nine months later, I was standing on the tarmac at DaNang Air Base, wondering if I would survive the heat, let alone the enemy.
I was drafted, and among the thousands of papers I had to deal with at first was one asking where I wanted to be posted- as if I had a choice. Despite bitching about it all through high school, in a moment of temporary insanity I requested Viet Nam. They sent me to Alaska.
Pardon the hijack, but were you there working on the initial construction of the base? If so I had a question for you…
Ah, the military. Gotta love 'em. 
Nope, just landed and departed from there. I spent my year at Red Beach, a bit north of DaNang.
Ah, I see. Well, my dad may have given your plane clearance to take off when you left, anyway. 
I was in the Navy during the 1980’s. Some of the old timers on my boat were Vietnam era enlistees who joined (and stayed in) the Navy rather than take their chance with the draft.
In dress uniform you could tell a Vietnam era sailor - he’d usually have the “hero’s assortment” of medals. We used to call the National Defense Service Medal the “old man award.” Now, of course, everyone gets one.
Excellent! Never been so happy to see someplace in the rear view mirror.
Yes, but you had to be careful.
My Dad still had RA connections, and if I my number had been called, I would have volunteered, and it was suposedly arranged I’d be sent to Germany- and since I did speak some German, it wasn’t crazy.
OTOH, a friend volunteered at the start of the conflict for the Navy and was suggested he go into Motor Minesweepers. However, quickly they were sent into gunboat service, so he saw a lot of action.