After completing basic training I went to New Jersey, Ft. Monmouth, for training. Because I had enlisted I got to choose my MOS... computer repair. While being trained we discovered that 100% of the classes who had graduated in the previous approx. 10 years had been sent to Viet Nam. One of my classmates got mad about this and wrote his congressman.... I don't know what he said but I do know the congressman made inquiries.. to whom or what he said again - I don't know. When we graduated none of us went to Viet Nam but instead either Germany or Korea.
In basic training we had 270 soldiers in our company. Half of those were Natl. Guard... in for 6 months then out. 135 regular army. I became good friends with a guy from Lemoore and we maintained contact thru our tour of duty and for several years after. He got stationed in D.C. working... well, not sure of his title or MOS.... he ran the stats for various things which included the causality reports from Viet Nam... (you probably remember the weekly news reports). He and I separated after basic but reunited doing a year in the Army Resevex after our active duty... and he told me that of the 135 active duty soldiers we attended basic training with 37 never came home from Viet Nam. He didn't remember all their names, of course, but remembered several of them... friends of ours from Basic.
Also while in Germany they ran a drawing... this is weird, I know, but true... every week they chose 3 people at random, (or supposedly at random), to be transferred to Viet Nam. I had to go thru that drawing for nearly 2 years. Never told my wife about it.
While in Germany I was assigned, for a few days, the duty of introducing those just arriving to the base in Germany... where things were, etc. One guy told me he had been on a plane in Seattle headed for Viet Nam when they announced, WHILE ON THE PLANE, they had been reassigned to Germany.
He was in Germany for one week and got 'drawn' for Viet Nam.
Yes, I know many men on the Memorial wall in D.C.... and have visited perhaps a half a dozen times. - JamesJM
