Each infantry soldier participated in a myriad of leisure activities in their R&R destination of choice to relax, decompress, and have fun from the adversities soldiers personally faced.
Soldiers needed a break from the reality of war and anything could help relieve that stress. During this leisure time soldiers could relax and play games or instruments, sing, write to their families and occasionally watch entertainers who were flown in from America.
Never knowing who to trust, the U.S. combat troops experienced constant fear and anxiety during their frequent patrols of the villages and countryside. They knew that the enemy was all around them, but their main form of contact came through traps or ambushes rather than large-scale battles.
In their spare time, soldiers wrote letters and diaries, drew sketches, read books and magazines, pursued hobbies, played cards or gambled. There were also opportunities for more-organised social activities.
Unlike veterans of other wars, Vietnam veterans did not return home to cheers and ceremonies. Most Americans wanted to forget the trauma of the Vietnam War and move on. As a result Vietnam veterans were seen as a reminder of defeat and of a time that should be forgotten.
Many went to prison, but 25,000 served in non-combat jobs, and 12,000 were placed in work camps. They volunteered to help in mental institutions and to serve in experiments on contracting pneumonia and the flu.
Many Vietnam veterans claim that most people treated them with indifference and seemed uncomfortable listening to their stories from battle. Some people, however, saw returning soldiers as dangerous, violent symbols of an increasingly futile and terrible war—much like the individual Wowwk encountered.
Soldiers of all nations and militaries turned to a wide variety of entertainment: from sports, gambling and card games, to music, food and drink, to organized performances and dances.
The Vietnam War was a disaster from its bad beginning until its tragic end. It killed four million Vietnamese and over 58,000 Americans. Millions more, Vietnamese and Americans, were wounded by shell or shock and the war came close to ripping our country asunder.
According to John Kerry's testimony, Vietnamese civilians were often subjected to shocking violence. Soldiers raped, mutilated, shot at, and brutally murdered civilians. Troops also intentionally destroyed Vietnamese villages, well beyond the destruction typically wrought by war.
The congressionally mandated Research Triangle Institute study in 1988 that compared 1,625 Vietnam veterans with 750 other veterans and 750 civilian counterparts found that 15 years after the war's end, 15 percent of male veterans and 9 percent of female veterans were suffering from PTSD.
Well, since about 98% completed their 12 to 13 month tour and returned to the States alive, even though possibly wounded or otherwise injured, the average "lifespan of a soldier in Vietnam" would have been about 11.75 to 12.75 months.
The all-volunteer MACV-SOG (most were U.S. Army Special Forces “Green Berets”) carried out some of the most dangerous and challenging special operations of the Vietnam War.
With the crucial exception of combat, music was ubiquitous in Vietnam, reaching soldiers via albums, cassettes and tapes of radio shows sent from home; on the Armed Forces Vietnam Network, featuring songs from stateside Top 40 stations; and on the legendary, if short-lived, underground broadcasts of Radio First Termer, ...
Difficult climate and terrain
The effectiveness of American soldiers was undermined not by a lack of skill or courage but by other factors, such as local conditions, unclear military objectives, the highly politicised nature of the war and the stealth and inventiveness of their enemy.
Army tours of duty in Vietnam were 12 months for enlisted men and 6 months for officers. Special Forces personnel served 6-month Temporary Duty assignments. Marines and Navy Corpsmen were assigned 13-month tours of duty (mostly to show up the Army).
The United States Archives and other sources suggest that between 25 and 50 American soldiers a year were bitten by snakes during the war in Vietnam. Some 10,786 American soldiers died of non-combat causes, including 9,107 by accidents and 938 due to illness. Snake bites were not specified.
Despite this, from 1961 to 1973, the U.S. military dropped an estimated 81,000,000 liters of various chemicals on Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Over 60% of this was Agent Orange. The U.S. military's actions in poisoning these countries and their people still stand as one of the greatest war crimes since World War II.
To be sure, he offers plenty of numbers -- for instance the mind-boggling estimates that during the war there were some two million civilians killed and some five million wounded, that the United States flew 3.4 million aircraft sorties, and that it expended 30 billion pounds of munitions, releasing the equivalent in ...
In the most developed trenches, dugouts for sleeping and protection from artillery, concrete reinforcement, and blind alleys for confusing penetrating enemies were common. The floors of the trenches were either mud and muck or, for the lucky Soldiers, made of wooden planks called "duckboards."
Cooking in the front-line trenches was very difficult, so soldiers ate most of their rations cold. If cooking did occur, it was done on a small folding solid-fuel stove, known universally as a 'Tommy Cooker', that many men carried in their packs. Soldiers also cooked in pots over charcoal or wood.
In between these battles, the troops endured a daily routine of tedium and random death. Men spent daylight below ground level, cleaning themselves and their weapons, and maintaining the trench. Personal time was limited; reading or writing letters from home was a favorite pasttime.
All Australian military personnel who returned from South Vietnam aboard HMAS Sydney received a 'welcome home' parade. Troops who arrived home by air were invited to join them, but few accepted the offer. Some returning veterans were subjected to abuse by anti-war protesters.
While these facts are not cited to draw comparisons to the veterans of other wars, it is important to remember that those who served in Vietnam were also the only American war veterans who were not welcomed home as heroes. Contrary to popular presumption, not everyone who served in Vietnam saw combat.
Unlike veterans who fought in previous conflicts, the Vietnam veterans were never welcomed home, so many of them suffered from significant social isolation. Jim's PTSD was a result of his military experience in conflict and social isolation which created a vicious circle.