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Posted by kennyr (U2647470) on Saturday, 4th March 2006
Everyone seems to believe/hear that the average age was 19 for troops in Vietnam (that song etc.) but I'm sure I read the average age was 24.
Is this true? I know it was young but was was the (rough estimate) average age?
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I have just - 5 minutes ago - finished reading a web site about Vietnam and it stated the average age was 19 and the average for wwii was 24
can u imagine being out there at 19 ??
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, in reply to message 2.
Posted by chalsealauren145 (U3301564) on Saturday, 4th March 2006
Yeah Stalteriisok is Absolutely correct the average age is 19 for vietnam
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, in reply to message 3.
Posted by Grand Falcon Railroad (U3267675) on Saturday, 4th March 2006
The average age being 19 is scary but no suprise - the draft would have made up a large percentage of young guys and a lot of the troops would have been disadvantaged youths with no futures in the US so signing up for the Army would have made common sense (of a sort).
What might be interesting would be to see how the average age changed over the entire period of US involvement - I would have thought the age would have been higher at the start as more professional soldiers were there and dropped as the draft took hold.
Link to this forum: average age of US troops in Vietnam? Was it 19?
And now......... what do you think is the average age of the British soldier now in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Link to this forum: average age of US troops in Vietnam? Was it 19?
, in reply to message 5.
Posted by Grand Falcon Railroad (U3267675) on Saturday, 4th March 2006
I would say the average would be 22 - taking into account that a lot of senior NCO's and officers must be there doing non-combat support jobs rather than young squaddies - but saying that with the new deployments of grunts that might be coming down.
Over the army as a whole I would say 24.
Link to this forum: average age of US troops in Vietnam? Was it 19?
And now......... what do you think is the average age of the British soldier now in Iraq and Afghanistan?Β
Dirk Marinus: I am a Vietnam Veteran. From everything I have learned nineteen is correct. Most of the men were drafted right out of high school and sent very quickly after boot camp. Even so, IMO, they did a good job considering the conditions and the fact that the high command was still, in their minds, fighting WWII. It took us forever to convince them to give us semi-automatic 12 gauge shotguns. Far superior weapon for 50 yards or less.
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