ART EATMAN - "The U.S. military structure is roughly one guy shooting for nine or ten supporting.
We had a half-million guys in Vietnam. I was always amazed at the "new" percentage; seemed like nobody ever over there was a typewriter jockey."
When I lived in Los Angeles, I came to know a younger man pretty well, who loved hunting and the outdoors. Coincidentally, he had gone to the same U.S.A. school I attended, Radio Teletype Operator school (039) at Ft. Gordon, Georgia, except I was there in 1959, and he was there in 1966.
Later, he was sent to Vietnam. He made it very clear to me that he'd "never heard a shot fired in anger." He was an RTO in a Hdq's Co., on one of the big bases. He said he'd run into some former soldiers over the years who claimed to have been in Vietnam combat, but he knew they hadn't, once he talked with them. They'd served "in the rear," just as he had.
He said the only time he actually "carried" a rifle was when one night, far across the base, a few V.C. sappers got through the wire and blew up a couple of buildings. So everyone was on alert. But he said they mainly just sat around with their rifles, while other soldiers handled the V.C. intrusion problem. After a couple of days, the alert was lifted.
No matter he never saw combat, he served in Vietnam, but never claimed any "action."
FWIW.
L.W.
