re: I'm not calling you a liar, I'm calling you mistaken. There where tens of millions of draft age men in the US during the Vietnam war. You didn't have tens of millions of Americans fighting in Vietnam. Its really very simple.
It wasn't "very simple" if you didn't have a deferment.
There were 1,766,910 men kids drafted during Vietnam. That doesn't count the people who enlisted rather than get drafted; you got "perks" if you did that, and many, many people did.
On June 8, 1969 the lottery was held... we had started lowering our troop levels the year before, by ~50K, and in 1971 the troop levels would go down by ~100K. Yet, if your birthday was in the top 50%, you were sure to get called. While the while the war was winding down, this was the result of the draft lottery:
In reality, the lottery numbers of 19 year old men were called at a rate of 30 per month, at least for the early-1970 months of January through May. For example, a man with a #131 was ordered to report for his physical exam 18 Feb 70, subsequently classified 1-A, and then ordered to report for induction 20 May 70 (May's maximum quota allowance called men with the numbers 121 through 150)
The draftee with the #131 was in the Central Highlands of Vietnam by February of 1971 at his first duty station, following Basic Combat Training (BCT) and Advanced Individual Training (AIT) at Ft. Dix, New Jersey.
The highest number drafted in this group of men was 195.
Here are the draft classifications:
Classification
Definition
I-A
Available for military service
I-A-0
Conscientious objector available for noncombatant military service only
I-C
Member of the armed forces of the U.S., the Coast and Geodetic Survey, or the Public Health Service
I-D
Member of reserve component or student taking military training
I-H
Registrant not currently subject to processing for induction
I-0
Conscientious objector available for civilian work contributing to the maintenance of the national health, safety, or interest
I-S
Student deferred by statute (High School)
I-Y
Registrant available for military service, but qualified for military only in the event of war or national emergency
I-W
Conscientious objector performing civilian work
contributing to the maintenance of the national health, safety, or interest
II-A
Registrant deferred because of civilian occupation (except agriculture or activity in study)
II-C
Registrant deferred because of agricultural occupation
II-D
Registrant deferred because of study preparing for the ministry
II-S
Registrant deferred because of activity in study
III-A
Registrant with a child or children; registrant deferred by reason of extreme hardship to dependents
IV-A
Registrant who has completed service; sole surviving son
IV-B
Official deferred by law
IV-C
Alien
IV-D
Minister of religion or divinity student
IV-F
Registrant not qualified for any military service
IV-G
Registrant exempt from service during peace (surviving son or brother)
IV-W
Conscientious objector who has completed alternate service contributing to the maintenance of the national health, safety, or interest in lieu of induction into the Armed Forces of the United States
V-A
Registrant over the age of liability for military service
That takes many out of the pool, especially the college deferment. A lot of really dumb folks studied very hard because they knew the alternative if they flunked out. Many studied divinity just as a dodge.
Some more stats:
Vietnam as Statistics
Some interesting statistics on the War in Vietnam from the book “The Vietnam War Day by Day” by John S. Bowman, Barnes & Noble 1989.
“Some 8,744,000 Americans served in the four branches of the US military-Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force-during the main period of hostilities (August 1964-January 1973), which make the Vietnam War second only to WWII in number of personnel involved. But because of the constant rotation of US servicemen in Vietnam-primarily one-year terms-a greater percentage of personnel saw duty in Vietnam. The average age of US combat personnel in Vietnam was only 19-compared to 26 in WWII. Black Americans constituted about 13 percent of the total troop force in Vietnam, about the same as their proportion of the total US population, but 28 percent had combat assignments, and only 2 percent of the officers were black. Meanwhile, about 15,000,000 eligible American youth avoided the draft by gaining student or occupational deferments; an estimated 250,000 simply didn’t register for the draft; an estimated 1,000,000 committed draft offenses; some 25,000 were indicted for draft-related charges, but only some 3250 spent any time in prison.
The US military lost 47,253 in combat and another 10,449 died in Vietnam; there were 313,616 wounded, of whom 153,300 were classified as seriously wounded. Only a small percentage of the US military personnel actually fought against large Vietcong or North Vietnamese units, although 76 percent were the target of enemy mortars or rockets, and 56 percent witnessed their comrades being killed or wounded. Due to the use of helicopters for evacuation, and the advanced medical facilities available, 82 percent of Americans seriously wounded were saved (compared to 71 percent in WWII and 74 percent in Korea)-the highest survival rate of any modern war. Only 2.6 percent of those who reached hospitals died. However, because of the enemy’s use of booby traps, mines, ambushes, and other guerrilla tactics some 10,000 Americans lost at least one limb (more than all those in WWII and Korea combined). Another 81 US servicemen were killed in Laos and Cambodia. Some 1340 Americans were listed as Missing in Action when the war ended. Some of these would be identified and their bodies returned to the US in the years that followed, but most would remain listed as MIAs.
South Vietnam reported 185,528 of its military personnel killed in the war, with 499,026 wounded. North Vietnam and the Vietcong reportedly lost 924,048 dead in combat. Vietnam is estimated to have lost 415,000 civilians in the war, with at least 935,000 wounded.
South Korea lost 4407 troops fighting in Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand lost 475, and 2348 wounded; and 350 Thais were killed fighting in Vietnam.
It is roughly, but reasonably estimated that the war cost the US $150.00 billion in direct expenses. Indirect expenses would probably total at least that, while still other costs-such as payments to veterans, interest on debt incurred etc-are all but unending. On an average day, US artillery expended 10,000 or so rounds; at about $100.00 per shell, this item alone cost $1 million per day. One sortie by a B-52 cost $30,000.00 in bombs alone. Some 4865 US helicopters were lost in the war, each costing about $250,000.00 and 3720 other aircraft were destroyed. The total tonnage of bombs dropped over North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos came to about 8 million (about four times the tonnage used in all of WWII); 2,236,000 tons of bombs were dropped on the infiltration routes in Laos alone between 1965-71. Although the bombing inflicted an estimated $600 million worth of damage on North Vietnam, it is calculated that the Us spent about 10 times on these raids, in which thousands of US fliers were killed, wounded, captured, or missing. The Soviet Union and Communist China are estimated to have provided about $3 billion worth of aid to North Vietnam and the Vietcong.
That's all a bunch of numbers and fact that don't really amount to much. If you were there, then, you would understand. The draft was life-altering, in one way or another, for every able bodied kid in 1968. Your destiny was not your own. you could become divinity student, you could cut off a big toe, you could go to Canada, you could put off (what appeared to be) the inevitable by going to college, you could try for the guard and if you had connections you could get in. If you had real good connections you miraculously didn't get called.
But if you didn't do any of those things, then the government owned you. This was a palpable fear every day of your young life. You knew all your friends draft status, and the poor suckers that were 1A were dead meat. Every conversation included the draft, it was a huge dark cloud. You had no control of your destiny. You could either alter you life by going after some bogus deferment, or you would get drafted.
That's the truth. And I don't care what the fuck you think you know... it's my last post to you on the subject.
John |
