Question for Vietnam veterans.

[greatauntoftriplets]

What would your reaction have been had the military extended your tour of duty?

Thanks for your input.

[Florida_Geek]

1. Not a good one

and I predict the Military will start having more "fragging" of officers like happened in Viet Nam.

from my post http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=1413895&mesg_id=1413913

on Kerry and what he should do about Iraq.

IMHO his stand should be:

1) Turn over control to the UN and only supply the troops the UN requests. If he does this Germany, France and Canada would supply troops.

2) Make a promise to the US troops that max time in Iraq is 1 year.

3) Make a promise to the US troops that after a tour away from their families they would have at a minimum 1 year with their families and not stationed at any post that did not provide family housing etc. No Iraq to Poland for example.

4) Offer any military willing to stay beyond a year, 30 days vacation, plus double time for retirement and promotions for every month they stay in Iraq or a hot combat zone.


Kerry should be able to get 65% of the military vote with the correct stands. Like with the general public, there will always be 35% that will vote Bush even if they had been in Iraq for two years with no end in sight

[Dees]

2. Gettin' Short

A vet will tell you that when you get short you get mighty focused on your ETS date. I was extended a week. It had to do with unit troop strength. I got very spooked but fortunately things were reasonably quiet for that week. Leaving Vietnam was a beautiful beautiful thing. Two days later at Oakland Army Terminal I was separated from the Army. Having a tour extended involuntarily is not something any GI should face.

[Gildor Inglorion]

3. My colonel actually asked me to stay longer...

saying, "You are unique and irreplacable, and I need you." I very gratefully and respectfully declined to extend. If the army had involuntarily extended my tour, I don't know what I'd have done. I'd have FELT awful; disappointed, furious, and sick. As it turns out, I left Vietnam about three weeks before the Tet offensive. Thank God.

[kentuck]

4. It'll destroy the morale of the troops....

if it weren't destroyed already.

[Midwest_Doc]

5. The "I'm Going Home" Syndrome

About 30 days before you are scheduled to go home, a sense of dread comes on, with an all-consuming fear that something will happen to prevent you from leaving. It happened to me and most others I knew. You try to keep a low-profile, and be extra careful. But the fear persists.

Actually delaying your rotation out is ABSOLUTELY DEVASTATING! It will create depression, hostility, and a sense of pure pessimism.

[yelladawg]

7. Being a short timer

You get very careful and cautious when your ETS date gets closer. Once having pasted that date because of an extension, will make you careless as you try to overcompensate for trying to stay alive.

Only newbies or short timers get killed.

[5thGenDemocrat]

6. My dad was in during Korea

He was fourteen days from his discharge date when Harry Truman slapped a one year involuntary extension on him. Needless to say, Pops hated HST for the rest of his life.
John
I suspect these short-timers are going to feel much the same way about Dopey.

[11 Bravo]

8. I had my DEROS written on my boonie hat the entire time

I was in country. If my platoon leader had asked me to extend, I would have done it. I respected him that much. If I had been ORDERED to extend by some chickenshit REMF like our current CinC, that would have been a whole different story.

[UTUSN]

9. "Leaving Vietnam was a beautiful beautiful thing" (Post #2)

Imagine the inside of the huge plane, where all the passengers are in one uniform or another. In the wait time there is the quiet rumble of chatter. Then, as the engines start, and even into the taxi, dead silence (from the passengers).

Then, at lift-off, the SPONTANEOUS, loudest CHEERING, ever.

As for being extended, think the opposite.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

10. John F. Kerry has actually lead men under fire

and he has spent a career looking out for the best interests of both our enlisted forces and veterans. If I were in the military it would seem the choice for prez this year is a no brainer.

[saigon68]

11. Sucked it up at the time

I would not have been happy, especially when I left after last tour 1971, by then it was obvious to everyone that the whole cluster fuck was going down the toilet and the talk was the ever increasing who is going to be the last person killed in the Nam