Meeting Another Nam Vet, Or Maybe?

A market along Highway 1 about seven miles north of Danang 1968.
Someone on our truck fired a shot in the air and everyone in the market hit the ground in unison.
Moments later, they were all back up. Strange times. (Click picture to make it larger.)

I met a Vietnam veteran last time I was at the store. I saw him in the bathroom washing his hands. He had on a POW jacket and a Vietnam veteran baseball type hat. He was scraggly and had a long grey beard. He was still washing his hands when I left so I waited outside for him.

"Hi, when were you in Nam?" I asked him. 

I will usually ask if I see a guy wearing all that stuff. It's just my curious nature because I'm one of those Nam veterans who doesn't wear the patches and hats and all the other bells and whistles.

"I was there in 64 and 65," he said. "And 66, 67, 68, and 69."

So this guy pretty much had the entire active war covered. That means he would have had to have done five tours.

"I was there in 67 and 68," I said.

"Lots of combat going on then," he said. "The Tet Offensive."

"Yeah, I was there for Tet."

And then the guy took off so fast, I didn't have a chance to talk to him about anything else. He for sure wasn't a lifer. Old lifers don't dress or look like he did. You can always tell an old lifer because they still walk and talk and look like they are wearing starched utilities. Their entire bearing and haircut will scream old lifer. This guy wasn't any of those things. 

I've never heard of any on the ground in-country enlisted man doing the five complete tours that it would take to cover those six years. It's possible he could have been Air Force and flew in and out during that time or he could have been a Blue Water Veteran from a ship that came and went. But I guarantee you, he never served five tours on the ground in Nam. Of course, he never said what branch of the service he was in before he took off.

I have to conclude, based on that brief encounter, that he was a phony. The phony Nam vet will always add more tours for some strange reason, as if one wasn't enough. Those who were really there know that one tour was enough. That's why the phony vet has to embellish because they don't know how bad it really was over there. Some veterans did a six month extension and some did two tours and some may have done three because of unit movements where everyone in the outfit has to go. But five is probably creative science fiction.

The first thing I usually ask is what outfit a guy was with after I ask what years they were in Nam. I didn't have the chance with this guy. If he didn't want people to ask, then why wear all the stuff that announces Nam veteran? He probably did want people to ask, but just not another Nam veteran. All I can say is they are out there, and they have been out there from every war. I could be wrong about this guy, but I doubt it.

Dennis Latham Books on Amazon

Michael In Hell, the ultimate PTSD novel.

Dennis Latham on B&N