Re: The lottery (2 posts)

Peter Brush (PWBRUS0@UKCC.UKY.EDU)
Thu, 3 Oct 1996 12:55:41 -0400

On Wed, 2 Oct 1996 15:34:20 -0400 Henry C. Beigh said:
>I agree, 1968 was the high casualty year. That was the year I got
>drafted. Not to be outfoxed by the SSB, I promptly went and enlisted in
>the Marines. I ended up at Parris Island, SC, in February, 1968. Around
>April or May we got put on a work detail to put up a tent city for
>people being drafted into the corps. This was the first time since the
>Korean War, or so we were told, that the Marine Corps had taken
>draftees. Draftees were segregated from the volunteers and ran through
>boot camp in their own, draftee only, platoons.
>

I don't think they told you quite right. On January 21 1968 a friend
of mine got killed at Khe Sanh. I remember that he was a Marine
draftee because he was the only draftee in my unit, and the only guy
killed in that round of fighting.

If you were at Parris Island from February until April or May,
you were in boot camp an awfully long time.

>
> Are you sure about the witdrawal of USMC troops from the Nam starting
>in 1969? I went overseas in March of 1970 and met my freshly withdrawn
>from RVN unit, VMA(AW)-533, in Iwakuni, Japan in the first week of
>March. They were, along with the 1st MAW (Rear) people, among the first
>to be withdrawn. They had been in Japan for no more than a few weeks,
>still waiting for gear to catch up from the move up from down south.
>

Yes, I'm sure. III MAF strength at the beginning of 1969 was 81,000.
At the end of the year it was 55,000. The 3d Marine Division left
Vietnam for Okinawa in 1969, leaving the 1st Marine Division and
1st MAW.

Peter Brush