Was every Vietnam era draftee sent to fight in Vietnam?

Factual Questions
1

If you were drafted into the US Army (or the Marines) during the 1960s and early 1970s, was it inevitable to be sent to fight in Vietnam as soon as you finished your training?

Or were there some lucky ones who could sit out their two years as a supply clerk in some sleepy garrison town in Germany or even stateside instead of walking through the hot, humid jungles of Southeast Asia and fighting a ruthless enemy?

As I understand it, one incentive for enlisting voluntarily instead of being drafted was to have some control over the job you would get in the military.

2

Being a clerk in Saigon would have been safer than many stateside jobs. Say fighter pilot. Like Bush was.

3

I can’t answer the OP, but it is my understanding that at any given time during the Vietnam War there were more U.S. troops deployed in Europe than in Southeast Asia - although I assume the latter saw more personnel turnover.

4

I can only speak concerning this one friend I have, but he was drafted and spent most of his time in Japan. Never went to Vietnam.

I also imagine it depended on which branch of the military one was drafted into.

5

I personally know three people who were drafted, and one who voluntarily enlisted (well, technically a judge told him that he could volunteer or they could start talking about jail time, so exactly how “voluntary” that was is up for debate). All four ended up in Vietnam. The three draftees were army. The “volunteer” was a marine. Two of the army draftees were infantry. The third drove an ammo supply truck (which wasn’t a whole lot safer - snipers put a couple of holes in the cab of his truck while he was driving it).

I don’t know how true it was, but common wisdom at the time apparently was that if you enlisted you might have some say about where you ended up, but if you were drafted, you were pretty much guaranteed an infantry position in Vietnam.

6

Though not a direct answer, this seems to indicate not:

“The United States enlisted 8,744,000 servicemembers between 1964 and 1975. Of those, 3,403,000 were deployed to Southeast Asia”. (Wiki)

I believe this refers to volunteers. So, if less than 50% of volunteers were sent, it seems unlikely all conscripts were.

7

All three of my Drill Sergeants and my first two Platoon Sergeants were drafted during the Vietnam War. Only one Drill Sergeant and one Platoon Sergeant served in Vietnam.

8

Very simply, no. But your chance of going to SE Asia was much greater if you were drafted. Even out of those who did go for whatever reason, the majority would not see combat. Just as now, the backline of support troops was much larger than the frontline of combatants.

9

Since being drafted meant serving for only two years on active duty (if I am not mistaken). There was probably not enough time to train the draftee for a special occupation anyway which probably meant that many ended up as infantrymen which were in great demand especially in Southeast Asia.

10

I question that unless you have some facts to back it up. I can’t refute it, either, but I doubt that the “US” or “RA” prefixes made any difference to the computer (yes, they had them back then) that sorted names for assignment.

Inevitable, no. Highy likely, yes. It largely depended on your MOS (Military Operational Specialty, or job description). If a particular MOS needed in Vietnam was yours, you were more likely to go.

The rules back then allowed you to enlist with a guaranteed MOS or training for one if you qualified, and unless you screwed up, that wouldn’t change. They allowed you to specify where you wanted to go in advance of enlistment, and as long as the position was open, you would be guaranteed assignment there, but only for one year. After that, you went where the military needed you most (but you could always request a transfer).

The trade-off often revolved around the enlistment or draft period. Draftees had to serve 2 years, Army enlistees, 3; I believe Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard were 6. If you wanted to be an officer, the minimums were higher in some cases, but I forget the numbers.

Draftees had absolutely no guarantee as to where they would go or what MOS they would have, although they could make a request. Enlistees had some control, but not total. You had to decide what was best for you – taking your chances or not.

And sometimes the recruiters would lead you astray to get points. They didn’t get points for draftees, but they did if they signed you up for enlistment. So they didn’t tell you that, in the first week of basic, the call might go out for qualified parties, and if you responded, you could get the same service as an enlistee did, but for a shorter term.

Example. I enlisted to avoid the draft, was qualified for and guaranteed Army Band for 3 yrs. But in Basic, at one formation, everyone who played an instrument was sent to the band barracks for auditions, and those that passed were send to band assignments right out of Basic. So if I had been drafted, I probably would have ended up the same place, but with a shorter service period.

Band training was 6 months in Little Creek, VA. I know draftees who were sent there, then stateside, then Vietnam. By the time they arrived in Vietnam, they had only 8 months left to serve.

11

Aren’t military bands a very special case? While you can (at least in principal) train a reasonable intelligent recruit any MOS, this doesn’t work for musicians: Either you have the talent, or you don’t. And if you didn’t take up music rather early in life, there would be absolutely no way to learn that skill in a short time and definitely not on the level that is required to play in a band.

12

The Sex Pistols don’t support this view :slight_smile:

13

True, but the Sex Pistols rarely played a medley of John Philip Sousa marches :smiley:

14

Oh thanks, that will haunt me for weeks now.

15

If you pass the aptitude test, you are sent to training. I don’t know why music would be different from radar or tank school, in any case the Army doesn’t think so.

You could, of course, flunk out of the training and be sent somewhere else.

The 6-month Little Creek, VA music camp was supposed to be mandatory for new recruits who were destined for band, whether they needed it or not. I think they were overloaded when I joined, and I was never sent there (went straight from Basic to assignment). Not that I needed it, as I was performing professionally already, but I knew other professional musicians who had to endure band camp anyway.

16

The draft only applied to the Army. The other services were voluntary. I’ve heard the stories about people joining the Navy and being grabbed for the Marines after they took the oath, but I think its urban myth. I was a Seabee electrician, and nearly my entire ‘A’ School class went to Vietnam, but I know some who escaped that particular pleasure. Luck of the draw, really.

17

My wife’s cousin was drafted about 1968 and spent his time in Germany.

So, no, not all went to Vietnam.

18

Musicat Could you elaborate on the Little Creek music camp?
During my enlistment I played in the Signal Corps band for almost 3 years. (Clarinet, Sax). But I was TDY (temporary duty) the entire time. If I’d known about the camp at the time, I might have re-up’d with a musician MOS.
What did I miss? (PM me if you like)
Jake

19

My personal experience is that many, many, many, draftees did not service in SEA.

I joined the USAF in 1965, enlistment at that time was 4-years. In 1968, our tours were cut to 3-1/2 years. Scuttlebutt was because they had started calling up the Reserves and National Guard and there wasn’t enough money to pay for all of us – guess LBJ was more fiscally responsible then today’s government! (By the way, the draft was extended to the Marines as well sometime in 1966)

20

There are a number of answers to this question similar to this one.

Marine Corps Draft: 42,633 shows up on a number of sites as well.

None of them are official military sites, so I’d say the question remains open to interpretation. But it seems pretty likely that while there wasn’t a separate Marine Corps draft, some draftees were moved over there. That certainly was the understanding of anyone of draft age in those years as well.