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Originally Posted by fyimo
I guess I'll try this again as my post yesterday got sent to never never land for bad word choices.
Even though Vietnam was a very unpopular war there seems to be a large segment of the Vietnam aged male adult population who now want to claim that they were in the war and were combat soldiers. This is a well documented fact and the estimate is that there are 5 times as many people claiming to have served in country in Vietnam as actually did serve in country.
We run into this all the time in the VFW when people try to join. They tell us all these stories of where they served, when they served, and even the battles they were in and then when you ask them for their DD 214 they either say they lost it or it doesn't show them having been in country because they were black ops people.
Anyway, Just remember that 4 out of 5 people claiming to be Vietnam Veterans are in fact not. Those of us who actually served in Vietnam resent these posers and can usually spot them after a few minutes of conversation.
It's actually a sad and alarming number when you think of it.
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Fairly often someone, usually a younger person, will say something to me on the order of, "So you were in Vietnam, right?" Just because of my age and I do wear an old USAF ball cap around.
If was of a mind to, I could make up all kind of wild stories about imaginary Vietnam exploits in response to those inquiries. But what I do is explain that I was one of the luckiest guys around in those days (68-72) when I was in. I got a free all expenses paid trip to West Berlin courtesy of Uncle Sam, while some of the boys I grew up with went to Vietnam and did not come back.
I know some folks who served there, in fact eat breakfast with a group of vets/gun nuts each week. Those who did serve over there never seem to make a big deal of it. But I respect each and every one of them.
I don't know why the posers do what they do. But it is a real shame because it cheapens the memory of those who did serve in Vietnam IMHO.
For all of you who did serve in Vietnam, or the younger folks who served in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere, I thank you.