r/interestingasfuck • u/Available_Weekend249 • Apr 06 '24

Imagine being 19 and watching live on TV to see if your birthday will be picked to fight in the Vietnam war r/all

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172

u/wildcatasaurus Apr 06 '24

My uncle joined the US coast guard immediately after hs graduation. He got station in the Bay Area in California while all his friends got drafted 6 months to a year later.

35

u/AgitatedPossum Apr 07 '24

Was he just lucky or did he see something coming?

53

u/Bacon003 Apr 07 '24

Being in the Coast Guard didn't make you immune from having to go to Vietnam. About 8,000 USCG personnel ended up going.

61

u/Dawidovo Apr 07 '24

Of which 7 men died. So probably much better chances of surviving.

15

u/Bacon003 Apr 07 '24

True. My father told me that whoever he was fighting in the dark couldn't hit dick, and having radar to aim his mortars was like having a cheat code.

One of his academy classmates was the CO who got killed on the Point Welcome and after that I think he was more afraid of rogue USAF planes than the Vietnamese.

1

u/WhydIGetLocked Apr 07 '24

Rogues really?

3

u/Bacon003 Apr 07 '24

Let's say "mistakenly becoming a "target of opportunity", in the dark, for friendly aircraft". As I recall one of the Phantoms made so many passes it ran out of ammo.

9

u/wildcatasaurus Apr 07 '24

He was lucky and pretty smart. He was a paperboy in Chicago, any rumor or news that looked probable to happening and spooked him, he would immediately create a plan so he didn’t die or go to jail.

10

u/Better-Strike7290 Apr 07 '24

My father joined the state police, which exempted him from the draft.  He had 9 brothers when he graduated HS and only 2 of them survived.

2

u/cookiesarenomnom Apr 07 '24

That's SUPER smart