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What were you doing in 1973

gap1916gap1916 Member Posts: 4,977
edited November 2009 in US Military Veteran Forum
Viet Nam was not the only hot spot. Just the most televised and talked about. This is true for most of the Viet Nam conflict. Begining to the end. Just a few thoughts from you if you will. [8D]
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  • rovernutrovernut Member Posts: 256 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    In 1973 I was de-briefing the returning POWs, and trying to figgure out where all the rest were.
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  • MIKE WISKEYMIKE WISKEY Member Posts: 10,035 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    getting on with my life (got out in '72)
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  • HokkmikeHokkmike Member Posts: 577 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Out of the USAF and back into college.
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  • woodshermitwoodshermit Member Posts: 2,589
    edited November -1
    I don't remember.
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  • HAIRYHAIRY Member Posts: 23,606
    edited November -1
    Assigned to the Office of the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, as the Administrative NCOIC. Admiral Moorer was the CJCS--outstanding officer.
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  • buddybbuddyb Member Posts: 5,365 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Diego-Garcia
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  • DancesWithSheepDancesWithSheep Member Posts: 12,938 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Graduate school.
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  • Tiger6Tiger6 Member Posts: 1,707 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Ft Benning
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  • Ray BRay B Member Posts: 11,822
    edited November -1
    By '73 I'd been out of the USMC for 3 years, during '73 I finished my first year in college and transferred to University of Chicago for Fall quarter.
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  • Smoky14Smoky14 Member Posts: 531 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Getting ready for my third tour of duty.
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  • korsakovkorsakov Member Posts: 13 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    recruiting...first tour under my belt already...USMC...MAG-15...1968-1977...
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  • 00scoots00scoots Member Posts: 410 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I was an E-5 on my way to OCS at Quantico.
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  • dberry1052dberry1052 Member Posts: 4 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Sitting in Guam, observing and forecasting weather for US Navy/ Air Force's. Supported the efforts in Vietnam even if I never got there. I went on to serve 23 years in the Navy, enlisting as an E-1 and retiring as a LT Commander, with a speciality of Aviation Maintenance Duty (restricted line)...
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  • Ray BRay B Member Posts: 11,822
    edited November -1
    d- I worked with a fellow that did that- enlisted during WWII, started out as E1, twenty something years later he retired as O4. I went in as E1 and retired 2 years 7 months and 18 days later as E2, but then rank was slower in the Marines.
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  • bobskibobski Member Posts: 17,866 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    working in a honda motorcycle shop buiding 750/4's and elsinores fresh out of the crate (but wishing i owned a 750 kawasaki triple)...as a part-time job as a senior in high school. went cache program and right into the navy months later. did 22 years, never looked back.
    Retired Naval Aviation
    Former Member U.S. Navy Shooting Team
    Former NSSA All American
    Navy Distinguished Pistol Shot
    MO, CT, VA.
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  • kimikimi Member Posts: 44,719 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Back to Oki Knock Knock just north of Kin Ville
    What's next?
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  • Grunt2Grunt2 Member Posts: 2,525 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Returned from Nam,started a Drug Rehab program for the Army (Ft. Lewis) and trying to get out on a "Breach of Contract"..
    Retired LEO
    Combat Vet VN
    D.A.V Life Member
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  • 11echo11echo Member Posts: 1,007 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    1973 Heck I was just heading in the Army ...Ft.ORD 26 Feb. Volunteered for Viet Nam & Alaska ...got sent to Germany ...go figure! April 1975 1SGT keep saying "Get ready boys, we are heading back any day!" You should have been in the N.C.O. club the day Saigon fell! ...Not alot of dry eyes in there that evening! Officially I'm called a "Viet Nam era Vet." ...But I never claim that exalted title, because I flat wasn't there! ...But kinda knew what they went through. My hat is off to anyone that served there!!! 73-76 3/12th CAV
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  • alaska 207alaska 207 Member Posts: 16 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Had been back from Nam for a whole 13 months and time to say bye to the wife and kid again and off to beautiful Iwakuni Japan. Not to say anything bad about the Japanese, but I was just about tired of looking at slant eyes, aside from what the hell does an 1341/45 operator/mechanic do where there is no dirt that isn't covered by something.
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  • BT3BT3 Member Posts: 1,913 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Still in 69-74. [8D]
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  • nc huntrnc huntr Member Posts: 11 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Having Nightmares and looking for a job.
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  • jiminmokenajiminmokena Member Posts: 3 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I shipped off from El Toro to Iwakuni, Japan, and then to Subic Bay with the 1st Marine Air Wing. We were shipboard on USS Midway (CVA-41) bouncing back and forth for the whole tour. God Bless every S.O.B. who got their * in the grass and fought the Communist meanies. Too bad we can't send them to that great collective in the sky back here in the states. There wouldn't be a Democratic Party.
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  • kraschenbirnkraschenbirn Member Posts: 70 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Working (12) hours a day performing contract compliance inspections and writing "as built" reports for a natural gas pipeline project; my first "real job" after graduating from Univ. of Ill. Separated from the Army in '70 after (2) tours in 'Nam and a year at Ft. Bragg attached to an aircraft weapon test/eval team.
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  • jlundy46jlundy46 Member Posts: 7 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I got out of the Navy in 1971 and was in Vietnam from 66 through 68 as part of Operation Market Time (coastal patrols). In 1973 I was in my second year of law enforcement and going to college.

    John
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  • br549br549 Member Posts: 1,024 ✭
    edited November -1
    i was staying drunk as i did for 18 years after i came back to the world[:(]
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  • IronrifleIronrifle Member Posts: 664 ✭
    edited November -1
    Discharged in `70, and moved from NY to Arkansas in `73. Best move I ever made!
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  • bakmc3bakmc3 Member Posts: 159 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    IN 73,I WAS AT FT.HOOD TX.


    B troop/2d squadron/1st cavalry/2d armored division

    Discharged may,14 1974[:D]

    then got on with my life[8D]
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  • oldman2oldman2 Member Posts: 14 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I was in the Marine Corps. I was 18. Joined when I was 17. Was not drafted. Once a Marine all ways a Marine. Semper Fi. The Oldman
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  • txshootisttxshootist Member Posts: 1 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I was working up on the USS Forrestal CVA59. Nugget Naval Aviator in SH3D antisubmarine warfare helicopters. I was never in Viet Nam, but I guess I am a Viet Nam era veteran. Hats off to those who were actually there and served honorably.

    Marc
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  • Jimboak47Jimboak47 Member Posts: 8 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    In 1973 I was stationed in Alaska. Had just returned from my third tour in Nam in 72.
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  • WhoPeeInT.P.WhoPeeInT.P. Member Posts: 1 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    They Drafted me, Won me in a lottery with a # of 91. Nixon said he wasn't going over 75 in July 1972, but in Sept 72, he lied.[:0] Go figgure. Went 2 Ft Lost in the woods 4 Basic and A.I.T in Oct,72 (or was it ATI)? They originally had me down Viet Nam bound, then changed it over 2 Korea in A.I.T.(or A.T.I.)[?]. I flew over ther in Feb,73. Overstayed (18 months). Got my orders changed and was able 2 give them 2 my friend that had a faimly close by in California. It was for Ft.[?]in Utah. No regrets. Glad I went

    P.S. Like your Quote Grunt2
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  • Old-ColtsOld-Colts Member Posts: 22,697 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Our 1972 cruise was extended (really extended), so during the first part of 1973 I was still an active member of the Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club and part of the backend crew of an E-2B flying missions off of the USS Midway (CVA-41). Shortly after we returned to San Diego from our 11 month 72-73 cruise the Navy relocated the Midway and its Air Wing to Japan. I left Japan in 1975 and by 1976 I was through having fun in the Navy, so I got out after 8 years and 9 months and spent the next 30 years in the Defense Electronics industry.

    If you can't feel the music; it's only pink noise!

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  • pdhunterpdhunter Member Posts: 22 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Running from myself trying to figuar what the hell happened .
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  • Brock TownsendBrock Townsend Member Posts: 3 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    DAO (Defense Attache Office) Saigon & Bien Hoa until April '75.
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  • JackiePapersJackiePapers Member Posts: 544 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Out of the Air Force and back in college... Loooooong time ago! Where does the time go???
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  • Ray BRay B Member Posts: 11,822
    edited November -1
    The alternate question is: Where does time come from?
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  • HandLoadHandLoad Member Posts: 15,998 ✭
    edited November -1
    I was in the Engine Room of a United States Merchant Vessel, the States Lines SS M.M.Dant, working to keep the old girl running up the river to Vung Tao to anchor out in the nighttime, and shift in to the docks during daylight, off-loading Bombs, ammo, beer, and supplies. I was a United States Merchant Marine Academy Cadet, on my sea-year training voyages.

    I made six runs up the river, four of them only to Vung Tao, and two to Vung Tao and Saigon Harbor - those were in 1974.

    While we were alongside the docks, there were boat-borne ARVNs who dropped concussion grenades in the water every five to ten minutes, to keep divers from planting mines on the hull. Sure kept us hopping in the engine room, as almost every third time or so, one or another of the thru-hull valves would spit out its packing and start shooting river water all over some electrical motor, or on a steam pipe (made clouds of steam you couldn't see through in an already hot<130 deg. F> and 100% humidity) in the engine room. Fast as we got two or three fixed, another would pop.
    The first time we were alongside, I nearly pooped my pants when the first grenade went off, as no one had told me it would happen - I figured the cargo was going up!!! I was heading topside!! Nearly knocked myself out on an overhead valve wheel, trying to get out of the Engine room!!
    By later trips, I could sleep through them.
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  • CapnMidnightCapnMidnight Member Posts: 8,038 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Hauling machinery from Washington and Oregon to Alaska. It was good to keep moving. Just divorced from the 1st ex wife.
    HHT 2-1 A Cav
    6/68-11/69
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  • FMFgruntFMFgrunt Member Posts: 10 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    gap1916: I was in Okinawa, 106 platoon. 2nd of 4yr active duty.
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  • tequachatequacha Member Posts: 34 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Left Nam dec 72, trying to sleep in a leaking shelter half in Germany in the snow shortly after that. What a shock, coming from a country where the mamsan shave everything cept their heads, to a country where the fraus didnt shave nothing.
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