Lt William Calley

I'll assure you of one thing. If a person told a VA doctor they didn't have PTSD their response would have been OK......if it was for monetary compensation

 

What is even worse I was stationed at Griffiss AFB in upstate NY and I worked in an information and intelligence unit of which almost all were civilians.

After I had been there for over a year I was constantly being invited to dinner.
People would do me favors. Most days my civilian boss let me go back to my barracks room (yes I had a room) after I did the required tasks which could be as little as 2 - 4 hours.I could have the use of base vehicles, a class A pass, I took courses at Utica College (Syracuse U), etc...

I was not required to work on the weekends.

I received a lot of flak from the other airmen unless of course someone needed a favor.

So, yes, I was a victim, but I enjoyed it.

HankD

 

I would also say both... I guess I was probably the first one on here to go to Nam... The first Marines to land was in March 8, 1965... I came shortly after as we left the states May 5th and landed in July... I will never forget that day we landed as there was a Jet with faulty landing gear with an armed bomb... I turn to my buddy and said well this war is over, for us anyway... Thank God he made it... In Vietnam I don't know about anyone else on here but here a VC there a VC, you just never knew who was VC?... In Da Nang there was a barber... During the day that was his occupation but at night he was VC... We found the company barber after he left for the day after a firefight that night in the compound dead... There were VC in disguise everywhere and they always showed their true colors at night... That was my experience... Brother Glen

 

Pregnant women did the same thing but they didn't run... They would slowly mingle in with Marines and pull the pin and take out Marines within 15 feet... Not only that we stopped our tank one time and a group of children gathered round... A two year old wandering around our tank grab a grease gun at pointed at the tank commander ego the tank commander slapped him into next week and retrieved the weapon... Like I said before you NEVER knew who was VC... The powers that be thru Lt. Calley under the bus... Life meant nothing to the VC... Brother Glen

 

Here is another interesting tidbit you might be interested in the Vietnam Conflict... You may have heard of it, if not here is and a video to prove its authenticity... Brother Glen

US troops believed that Vietnamese traditions held the symbolism of the spade to mean death and ill-fortune and in a bid to scare away Viet Cong soldiers without a firefight, it was common practice to leave an ace of spades on the bodies of killed Vietnamese and even to litter the forested grounds and fields with the card. In February, 1966, two lieutenants of Company "C," Second Battalion, 35th Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, wrote The United States Playing Card Company and requested decks containing nothing but the Bicycle Ace of Spades. The cards were useful in psychological warfare. The Viet Cong were very superstitious and highly frightened by this Ace.

Ace of Spades in the Vietnam War

 

Ultimately what good did it do.

When politicians started running the wars is when we began losing them.

HankD

 

Well it sure profited The United States Playing Card Company... Brother Glen

 

Oh right!

HankD

 

But that is probably all it did!... Brother Glen

 

Don't for get Boeing (though they have been known to use GE jet engines)..

HankD

 

Wake up and smell the napalm.

HankD

 

OK just saying that General Electric engines are used in Boeing aircraft.

GE Aviation

HankD

 

My chief of police I worked for for almost 20 years served under him and was involved in the "murders." According to him the orders came from way higher than Calley. He said they had done numerous "search and destroy" missions. He said to them S&D meant kill everything you finD that could possibly be used by V.C. That also meant farmers who fed V.C.

 

The V.C. would also go into a village and to make sure everyone did what they wanted the first person they would kill in front of the village, everyone watching was the village elder... That got everyone's attention. Some say this was also true to interrogate V.C. a group were gathered together and taken up in an airplane and thrown out one by one until someone finally talked... War is HELL... Atrocities on both sides... Brother Glen