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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2013 21:03:57 GMT -5
The 1st marine div. or what was left of it needed a total revamp after Guadalcanal which was more a campaign of endurance than actual fighting very few of the marines in the invasion were the same marines that went to OZ , a good friend who had been with the 1st said Guam was much harder . Your fil knew where he was and where the enemy was that was very rare in VN , you might know where you are but not where the enemy was . Again its up to the beholder , but I think the Reb that went to Gettysburg had it harder then all the rest .
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Post by jerryfmcompushaft on Jul 12, 2013 22:55:20 GMT -5
The trouble with averages is that it means there were some considerably higher and some considerably lower.... i doubt the average grunt spent 315 days in combat in RVN....I know some grunts that didn't spend any days in combat but did carry the grunt MOS... What was it again 11B?
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Post by Sir John on Jul 12, 2013 23:02:14 GMT -5
I remember reading a long article on 'Battle fatigue' done during WW2.
It arrived at the conclusion, after a great deal of research, that a 'normal' human male could withstand from 200 to 240 days of actual combat before he succumbed to it. It did not say if that was continuous days, but i think it was a cumulative figure.
SJ
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Post by jerryfmcompushaft on Jul 13, 2013 7:02:17 GMT -5
I remember reading a long article on 'Battle fatigue' done during WW2. It arrived at the conclusion, after a great deal of research, that a 'normal' human male could withstand from 200 to 240 days of actual combat before he succumbed to it. It did not say if that was continuous days, but i think it was a cumulative figure. SJ The problems with that conclusion is - define normal and define combat. i would just think the intensity of the combat would be a determining factor....
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2013 9:48:05 GMT -5
When a man arrived in Vietnam he was given one week of indoctrination if he was lucky then sent to a Unit . 11b was the mos , which was my mos but I never served a day in the bush .
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Post by jerryfmcompushaft on Jul 13, 2013 16:31:17 GMT -5
When a man arrived in Vietnam he was given one week of indoctrination if he was lucky then sent to a Unit . 11b was the mos , which was my mos but I never served a day in the bush . But no one can say that you were not in combat. We had 11B's standing guard at the Sig Bde compound in Saigon and they did not see much combat. There were similar assignments at MACV, USARV, and other headquarters locations. Adding their combat days in with those in the bush i can't see coming up with a figure of 315 days in combat.... It would mean that some troops in the bush would have had to serve in excess of 365 days in combat.... Stats in war are like body counts --- numbers with little basis...
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2013 20:43:26 GMT -5
Jerry , every one who served in VN was in potential danger just like everyone who drives a car is a potential accident , during my 9 months and 11 days I spent in VN ( all the time left on my enlistment ) I had little to do with support units , I was dimly aware that cooks cooked , truck drivers trucked and Officers did something , I didn't eat that s--t in the messhall , I didn't ride in a truck , the Officers in my world were pilots and we were crewmembers and we lived as crew members 4 went up together 4 came down together , the 116th was an assault company we went looking for trouble an pretty much daily we found trouble , I could not see beyond that , whether some spent 315 or 10 days was not an issue to me . , I spent two weeks in flight training and had a two week drop at the end , during the 8 months between I had 5 days off , our day started at 4 am and ended when it ended , other people served and served well , I was too tired to notice .
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Post by dontom on Jul 14, 2013 0:30:00 GMT -5
11b was the mos , which was my mos but I never served a day in the bush . I guess we didn't want to give the NVA that big of an advantage! ;D
-Don-
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2013 9:23:53 GMT -5
Don you're a good man and useful for something both Tom and I keep wondering for what ? .
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2013 22:01:56 GMT -5
War , Fighting getting down an dirty , macho man an all that shit , when the fighting was in around a village you didn't care who got hit , old women kids whatever you're fighting to kill whoever is trying to kill you .
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Post by Deleted on Jul 24, 2013 19:35:39 GMT -5
Village sweep , every once in a while the Americans would do a sweep of the villages around Cu Chi this was all very much routine 4 Huey's with a platoon of grunts would land on the front of the village or road side and one Huey would fly around to the back side or paddy side and hover a hundred feet up and a hundred yards back this was to catch anyone trying to escape out back , all routine all boring , I was on ship number 5 , I was eating a cheese and cracker this fellow came dashing out the back headed for a near by hedgerow he was moving fast and at a angle that I couldn't shoot at him had to fire in front of him let run into it I fired a burst then another down he went , he almost made the hedgerow to bad , but what the hell it wasn't anything personal .
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Post by Sir John on Jul 24, 2013 20:03:39 GMT -5
I thought only monkeys ate cheese and crackers.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 24, 2013 20:12:04 GMT -5
I'll have you know it was good old American C rations and not mystery meat from the Empire .
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Post by hornet32 on Aug 9, 2013 12:16:57 GMT -5
Muleskinner was the call sign of 242 avn. ahsc ( assault support company ) Chinooks I crewed on ship #7 , hornet was the call sign of the 116th ahc ( assault helicopter company ) I crewed on ship #32 .
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Post by jerryfmcompushaft on Aug 9, 2013 13:20:44 GMT -5
Bayonet was the switchboard name of my first duty assignment - the 8th inf Div. Radio call signs changed monthly in those days....
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