My Dad was at DaNang, 1970-71. It was his misfortune that the first day he was there, the Kent State massacre occurred, and they put them in further security lockdown. His barracks was bombed twice, the epicenter of one in the room next to his.
The man literally NEVER said a single word to me about it except that he was there and his barracks got hit twice.
I know nothing about him being over there other than he was.
When Bill Clinton ran for President in 1992, his carefully crafted actions to stay out of Vietnam were something of an issue (though somehow less of an issue than National Guardsman Dan Quayle, who actually served). I was young, in the service at the time, and angry at Clinton for, in my view, draft dodging. While I still have issues with Clinton on a lot of things, my view on that has changed as I've learned more about the draft lottery and how it was "every man for himself" at trying to not get drafted and in that sense, he didn't do anything differently than millions of others (of course I could also point out it only became relevant when he, unlike those millions of others, decided he wanted to be commander-in-chief, but this isn't intended to be a Bill Clinton post).
Having spoken with guys at the time who lived through it.....it was just different than anything I can recall about the military. The WW2 generation had a very real threat to the world's existence. Vietnam was a case of "we already know what happened in Korea so oh boy." Indeed, I spoke to many guys in their 40s in 1992 who - while generally pro-military conservative - had NO PROBLEM at all with what Clinton did and had their own tales of how to avoid going to Nam.
On the basis of these stories alone, I'm interested in it.
Thanks to all of you - with deepest sincerity - who have shared stories. It is a blank segment of my Dad's life I just don't know much about, which suggests a level of pain he may still have. When he had his strokes on Father's Day 2016, he suddenly wanted to see a shrink and his PTSD of a LOT of things suddenly came out.
I wish it had before but......you do what you have to.