Don’t know about you but I’m a little sick and tired of all those who never served in Vietnam making uninformed comments about Vietnam.
Happened to be walking by the TV, have all eight major TV news channels boxed on one screen, and saw a scene on Vietnam. Tom Brokaw was interviewing a Vietnam vet and a peacenik. Didn’t take me long to see Brokaw, one of my favorite newsmen, and his interviewees didn’t know what they were talking about.
Check these stats out from the VA, Am Legion and DOD:
2,709,918 Americans served in Vietnam. This number represents 9.7% of their generation. Less than 850,000 are estimated to be alive today
3,403,100 (Including 514,300 offshore) personnel served in the broader Southeast Asia Theater (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, flight crews based in Thailand, and sailors in adjacent South China Sea waters).
2,594,000 personnel served within the borders of South Vietnam (Jan. 1, 1965 – March 28, 1973). Another 50,000 men served in Vietnam between 1960 and 1964. Of the 2.6 million, between 1-1.6 million (40-60%) either fought in combat, provided close support or were at least fairly regularly exposed to enemy attack.
7,484 women (6,250 or 83.5% were nurses) served in Vietnam.
INTERESTING STATISTICS ON THOSE WHO CLAIM TO HAVE “Been There”: the number of Americans falsely claiming to have served in-country is 9,492,958.
Enough said
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
How and where have these statistics been collected, my census documents did not ask me about Vietnam. Not sure your story is based fully on facts but I believe plenty of folks claim Vietnam military service falsely out of guilt of avoiding their duty. I’m one of those who has such regret.
Sorry, I cannot confiirm all the stats.
I took the report off the net and should have checked my source.
I know the stats on those who served in the Armed Forces and Vietnam are correct but not sure on the false claims.
I changed my report.
thx, tom hayden