I am 22 and my co-worker was a lurp in Vietnam. can any one shed a little lite on this and any other memories?
448231
Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol - LRRP; pronounced as Lurp.
1044231
Vaguely, yes.  I'm not too old, nor too young.  I think what you are thinking about is not about the death toll, but rather how we stepped into jungle guerrilla warfare in Vietnam, totally unprepared for what was about to happen.  Then, we opened the jungle warfare school, and now we are awesome fighting in the jungle, but again the face of the enemy has changed and now we are fighting a bunch of terrorists, which like in Vietnam are difficult to differentiate between them and the civilian population.  We get burned in the press when we fight and burned when we don't, so it is a lose lose proposition and the soldiers are the ones with their back sides on the line.  The politicians? not so much.  Yes, we do have big guns, but if we blast the crap out of some building, inevitably, we kill someone unintended and it's a vicious press cycle.  The two "conflicts" are very different, but there are some vague similarities, that shouldn't be overlooked.  I hope one of the similarities doesn't turn out to be the length of time we stay there!
615010
I know a number of African students here and they ALL work part time and go to school also... Most all of them are frm the Sudan.\n\nI have been lookilng for students form Vietnam but have not seen any yet.
288092
Not legally for the United States.  You could join when you were 17, but had to be 18 to go to Viet Nam.\n\nThe NVA (North Vietnamese army "drafted" orphant boys as young as 12, but usually didn't give them combat assignments until they were 14.  The VC (Viet Cong) made use of children of all ages.
77247
First of all, let me say how sorry I am for your loss. As a combat Viet-Nam veteran of some twenty (20) months I know a little about the numerous questions you must have, at this most difficult time. If I may say, this is not the forum from which to seek the answers you must so desperately need. My advice to you would be to go directly to the horses mouth, so to speak. Contact the Bureau of Veteran's Affairs in your local area, you'll be on the right track then, with out getting wrong information and without shareing your grief with half the internet.    veteranpainter@yahoo.com
486606
K-9!(ex "Former Military)! What's this?!!! I don't believe it... the statements you made sound so-o-o-o much like me. Wow!! It's so refreshing!!! I'm proud of you. People and times change but then again some people don't. I still run across some that wish they had gone to VietNam (right) and others that sure try hard to be a Wanna-be Nam vet. I know damn well what they were doing in the 60's and 70's. I was a professional soldier who bitched but only after the mission was accomplished. I enlisted, was not a draftee and did as ordered. I was a hard-ass to my men but I never let them down and nobody messed with them. I fought for them and them for me. We shared everything in our lives together at that time and I mean everything. To some I'm closer to than my own family and always will be. To the women who ignored and ridiculed us... their loss. To the one who has stood beside me for 30+ years... she deserves a medal as do all veteran wives. In 1969 I was on my second tour. I didn't appreciate the protests because I knew that most didn't comprehend what that war was about as a lot now don't. I leave my thoughts of this war in my own mind and fully support the troops who really have no choice in the matter as I didn't. They have enough to do and worry about without having to consider what the people back home are thinking as I did then. I just thank God that America still has young people who are willing to fight for others freedom as I did. We don't have the most perfect form of government as we all would like to see but out of the 45 foreign countries I've been to it's still the best and that flag, the piece of cloth, so many disgrace is still the most beautiful one that I have ever seen for I realize what it took to fly it and to keep it flying. Most women...don't!
292551
WARNING:\n\nYou have been given some real good answers: You have a 6 year obilgation to perform. Its up to you as to how you do it. But as a two tour Marine Vet in Viet Nam and 13 years in the Army National guard; I would highly recommend you to fulfil your obilgation. It will haunt you for the rest of your life if you quit now. What will you tell your kids one day? That you were not man enough to help protect their rights to live in a free nation? Millions of men and women have died to give you the rights you now enjoy. Good luck.
960829
Fialko David Andrew Jr  PFC  Marines  Bridgeport  CT  November 14, 1968  S.Vietnam  December 4, 1949  hostile, killed \nSOURCE: Combat Area Casualties Current Files (CACCF) (machine-readable record), Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Record Group 330.  \n\nOnly 19 years old..... *sigh*\n\nYou may find these sites helpful as a beginning (in order of relevance, the first one contained the above):\nhttp://www.accessgenealogy.com/military/vietnam.php\nhttp://www.geocities.com/tlwolf98/marine16.html\nhttp://www.vetfriends.com/?source=google500c\nhttp://members.aol.com/veterans/warlib64.htm\n\nMany states maintain an archive such as this:\nhttp://www.archives.gov/research/vietnam-war/casualty-lists/nv-alpha.html\n\n\nHowever, the US depatment of Veteran's Affairs will be the place to request detailed information from. Remember, they will only be likely to provide information already available to the public. If you know what state David was from, you can contact the department local to him.
675056
I believe that there is a Crazyhorse Moondrop who lives in Multnomah County, Oregon.  On May 8 2006 there was a pre-trial hearing for the State versus Crazyhorse Moondrop.  The charge appears to be Thief-3, and Assault-4.   \nAccording to the official Air Force Link website, there is no active duty or retired general officer by the name of Moondrop.\nThe very last of the Vietnam War activities took place in 1975, over 30 years ago.  As he is 63 years old now, he would have been 33 years old or younger then.  The Air Force did not have any 33 year old generals in the Air Force.  Lieutenant Generals are usually in their 50's.  \nLieutenant General is the same as a 3-star general.  I cannot imagine that he stayed in the same grade for 30 years.   \nMandatory retirement age for all general officers is 62 (this can be deferred to 64 in some cases).  \n\nIt appears as though this gentleman is speaking with a forked tongue.
621619
A nice Web site on Vietnam is: http://www.deanza.edu/faculty/swensson/kieu.html\n\nI have never heard of a national animal or even flower. I spent 12 years in Vietnam from 1972 to 1974. I know more about Vietnam than most Americans and EVEN to include the Ambassadors that were there. I was with the people, I spoke fluent Vietnamese. I have a book manuscript that I wrote on Vietnam though not yet published. I could not tell you in this small space about Vietnam.\n\nIt is a beautiful country and the people are so gracious. I think it is a paradise.
403300
my dad was in Nam. i am old enough to remember the way he was before he went. he was never the same. i also remember how he was treated when he returned. i remember how many American died. a sad day in human history. i hope it never happens again. but knowing human nature it will.
585438
Interview a couple of veterans.  I was six or seven years old when hostilities started, but was involved in the evacuation of Saigon in 1975.\n  Go to Google.\n  Go to your local library.\n  Keep an open mind and realize that there are no truly unbiased opinions.  It was a war.  Don't let anybody white-wash it or demean those of us who went over there by referring to it as a 'conflict'.
232553
You might find some leads here:\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Vietnamese\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_American
599917
While you were busy protesting ,my husband was probably in Vietnam, we had just had a baby girl two months before he left, he didn't see her again until she was over a year old.  I didn't like Nixon, didn't like the war, though supported it because my husband and many of our friends were in the middle of it.  I think most young people do start out more on the liberal side of things, and then LIFE HAPPENS TO YOU!   What bothers me with allot of the postings on Yahoo is that many of them don't seem to be thinking for themselves, and they sound so bitter and hate filled.  Maybe that's just part of the process, but I think it's rather sad.
798591
Usually in Africa...  But in Vietnam it was done when N Vietnam regimes pulled in. Did you ever hear of the killing fields?  Kids were massacring people after we pulled out of Vietnam.   Millions died.
787960
I met an veteran from Market Garden 9 years ago who had a 10 year old son, so would be 19 now.\nMy dad also fought at Arhem and my school mates didn't believe me that my Father fought in the war, ( as he was 46 when I was born).
967006
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam#History go look at this site. I'm Vietnamese and just moved here 5 years ago. According to the news, Vietnam is a growing country. Our President George Bush visited Vietnam (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/11/19/bush.asia.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories).  We got our independence from the French but i do not recall the year. The Vietnamese contributed music, culture, and food as their achievements to America. (http://www.vietamreview.net/)