[bsliny]

Back when they had a Draft and they never should have gotten rid of it Does anybody
know how they selected who went where Like who went in the infantry who went in supply
and so on I know of a couple guys who had more education then i did at the time and they went to the infantry No they didn't ask for it I quess it was the luck of the draw

Hi BSLINY and thanks for your service. I am not positive about my answer to your question as I enlisted during 'Nam and not drafted. As far as draftee's were concerned I think it was kind of a mix of who went where. I believe it depended on need. If boots on the ground were needed, draftee's were quickly trained to fight and sent to the front lines. Viet Nam went for about 15 years so I guess at times they may have needed more educated draftee's for a more skilled and specialized positions and had the time to train them. In the end I think you are right, it was the luck of the draw. I think I detected from your posting on my "Military Talk" thread that you feel a bit guilty for not being in combat. Let me say this to you sir, you were in 'Nam. You faced as much danger as anyone. At times I still mull over in my mind that I wished I could have been there with the guys and gals up front helping them out. It's a natural way to feel if you were in during the fight but never got to the big show, so to speak. Maybe God had different plans for guys like us, but we still hurt the same for not being with our comrades in battle. You are a true American. No one can ever take that away from you! JohnnyM

[bsliny]

JOHHNY M


Thank You Very Much For Your Response I really apprecited it

The pleasure was all mine.....Johnny

[chuckinca]

When I went through training in '64 and assignment to a front line recon cav unit in Germany on the East German border in '65 about half of the guys in my units were draftees. There wasn't any special assignments that they had to be in, such as they had to be in the Infantry/Tank/Artillery platoons while the Regular Army enlistees (RA's) got rear job assignments. They were generally a little older and smarter than the RA's and not as gung ho and, if anything, they ended up in the rear assignments because of their age and smarts. The main difference was that they were in for two years and RA's were in for three. Because of the longer time in the service most of the Spec 5's (E-5) and alot of the younger Buck Sergeant's (E-5) were RA's in about the last six months of their three years and were in team leader positions while the draftees finished their two years as Spec 4's (E-4) and were usually not in leadership positions.