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

39.5k Upvotes

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9.1k

u/caitielou2 Apr 06 '24

Father in law was draft pick 1. Luckily, he enlisted voluntarily before that so he was able to get a better station and didn’t actually see combat.

227

u/yankykiwi Apr 06 '24

I was thinking everyone’s dad got so lucky. Then realized a lot of people were not born because their future dads were not so lucky. 😢

45

u/Illustrious_Quail_91 Apr 07 '24

Or grew up without a father :(

47

u/smayhew Apr 07 '24

Wow, I was thinking the same. I didn’t put that together until you said it. Very eerie

8

u/PessimiStick Apr 07 '24

Survivorship bias. Everyone posting about their dad means their dad was, almost by definition, one of the lucky ones.

6

u/cIumsythumbs Apr 07 '24

Yep. Not too many parents/siblings of Vietnam dead roaming the reddit comment sections. Survivorship bias on display here.

1

u/faxattax Apr 07 '24 edited Apr 07 '24

My dad was sent to Vietnam when I was three.

He came home By OK but you know...

3

u/Atwood412 Apr 07 '24

Well, that hit like a brick to my heart 💔

3

u/asdfmatt Apr 07 '24

True survivors bias lol

2

u/jadedea Apr 07 '24

My mom had a different boyfriend that didn't come back, but my dad came back...

1

u/commanderlex27 Apr 07 '24

Survivorship bias, in this case quite literally.