# Vietnam tour of duty **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 28, 2004, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vietnam-tour-of-duty/236951 "2004-03-28T18:53:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CBEscapee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@CBEscapee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBEscapee)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2004, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vietnam-tour-of-duty/236951/1 "2004-03-28T18:53:04Z")
IIRC for most US soldiers, the typical tour of duty in Vietnam was 13 months, which included a 30 day R & R. Was there a maximum amount of duty allowed? Could one have done 4 years straight (voluntarily), say from 66 to 70 or would they have been assigned elsewhere even if they had wanted to remain in Vietnam? ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2004, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vietnam-tour-of-duty/236951/2 "2004-03-28T20:34:15Z")
It was 13 months for Marines. Army, Air Force, and Navy did 12 months. R&R was 7 days, typically. Though I think under some circumstances you could get an extension, but that was rare. Toward the end of your tour you could extend it for 6 months, which a surprisingly large number of men did. I’m not sure if you could do a second extension or not. For various reasons (it didn’t look good, I’ve been told, being the main one) they wanted you to go home for at least a while. Once home you were, supposedly, assured of being there 6 months before being sent back. But a lot of men got home, found they didn’t like it and requested to go back fairly quickly. I knew a guy that I served with that did almost 3 years straight. He had a couple of short stints in the US mixed in. ---
**Author:** ![CBEscapee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@CBEscapee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBEscapee)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2004, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vietnam-tour-of-duty/236951/3 "2004-03-28T21:51:20Z")
Thanks SandyHook.