[CAVman]

I could swear that when I went into the Army (RA) in 1964 the draftees serial number was prefixed by just "US", I don't remember "AUS". And back then at Ft. Dix we had all kinds of enlistees in the same basic training company, I know my Company had RA, US and ER!

I agree on the 'US' only for Draftees...

And one more tidbit...
I'm not going to swear to this on a stack of Bibles, but this is what I remember...
I was an E-5 and RA, and one of our draftees was an E-5 Buck Sgt and our Senior NCO's wanted to promote him to E-6...
(I wasn't that impressed with him, but he was a 'good 'ol' boy and could BS with the best of the Southern NCO's...((No Insult Intended! -Just Fact))
GI2
Anyway, the promotion board came to a screeching halt when somebody in Bn S-1 figured out the guy's serial number was US 55X-XX-XXXX!
Which I was told meant---He was inducted on 'waivers'---he couldn't read or write well enough to pass the old GT test!
They called those guys on 'waivers'---McNamara's Men!, or the 'Moron Corps!'
And my recollection is that there were several hundred thousand of such individuals allowed to serve only pursuant to such waivers!

Anyway...I'm not implying they weren't good guys, or good soldiers, or good marines...it's just another odd chapter in the Viet Nam War!

CAVman in WYoming

 

[Horst Apies]

We didn't get them in the air wing due to the requisite schools, but a buddy who was sent to DI school in '66 wrote me that he was getting illiterate privates whose recruiters told them that the Marine Corps would teach them how to read and write. The fact that these poor souls even passed the AFQT was an indictment on those recruiters.

 

[CAVman]

We didn't get them in the air wing due to the requisite schools, but a buddy who was sent to DI school in '66 wrote me that he was getting illiterate privates whose recruiters told them that the Marine Corps would teach them how to read and write. The fact that these poor souls even passed the AFQT was an indictment on those recruiters.

Your post prompted another distant memory...
GI2
In Basic at Fort Bliss in 1966, I recall 'several' guys, not just a couple...who were 'helped' through the GT Testing and/or the PT Testing...
It was fairly obvious...
Fail Once, Do It Again With Individual Coaching!
Fail Twice, Send In A SUB, wearing the guy's Fatigue Shirt with his name on it!
(sometimes way too big!, sometimes way too small!)
Nobody said crap...just the way it was.
GI3

CAVman in WYoming

 

[Horst Apies]

That's amazing, CAV. Before she was commissioned, my daughter-in-law went through army basic and she related similar incidences. That explains the appearance of the US troops we see on visits to Europe. Wonder what my old senior DI would have said...

 

[RandyB45]

Which I was told meant---He was inducted on 'waivers'---he couldn't read or write well enough to pass the old GT test!
They called those guys on 'waivers'---McNamara's Men!, or the 'Moron Corps!'
And my recollection is that there were several hundred thousand of such individuals allowed to serve only pursuant to such waivers!

Anyway...I'm not implying they weren't good guys, or good soldiers, or good marines...it's just another odd chapter in the Viet Nam War!

CAVman in WYoming

It was an experiment known as "MacNamara's 100,000" and they suffered casualties at 3X the rate of non-waivered troops.

Not for academic use, but pretty good nonetheless:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_100,000

I was friends with the local Recruiting 1SG before I retired and his comment ran something like "Our biggest problem in the next few years is getting rid of the ones we never should have let in."

 

[str8shooter]

When I was signed up in '82 just past my 17th birthday nobody required me to show a GED or HS diploma. Good thing cause I didn't have either one. I think back then they were just desperate for warm bodies, the military wasn't a very popular career track at the time.

 

[sormi]

This is good....

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1005223_505386436207276_1872169158_n.jpg

 

[Horst Apies]

Most of my platoon was under 20. During the first week (when 2nd fingerprint cards were completed) we had a kid from Chicago who turned out to be 14. If he hadn't had a juvenile record, they wouldn't have caught it. I still wonder what the recruiter did with his original fingerprints, he obviously didn't process them.

 

[wheres the bears]

I'm not a veteran. Is that a qualification to be on this forum?

 

[str8shooter]

Reserved for smart ass comment when it comes to me. GI2

 

[Albud3]

I could swear that when I went into the Army (RA) in 1964 the draftees serial number was prefixed by just "US", I don't remember "AUS". And back then at Ft. Dix we had all kinds of enlistees in the same basic training company, I know my Company had RA, US and ER!

You're right, my bad. AUS is used for officers.

The last I heard, it's used when an officer retires and is "promoted" to the next higher rank,I.e.: retired at rank of MAJ/O-4, but his retirement certificate shows LTC/O-5, AUS.Is it still used like that?

 

[RandyB45]

You're right, my bad. AUS is used for officers.

The last I heard, it's used when an officer retires and is "promoted" to the next higher rank,I.e.: retired at rank of MAJ/O-4, but his retirement certificate shows LTC/O-5, AUS.Is it still used like that?

The only direction I've seen officers move after retirement has been backwards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_the_United_States

 

[Anthony]

US Army 1972-1975. RA. General orders, not a chance. Primary MOS-12B20. Secondary MOS-64M20. That was tough, took awhile but I got it...

 

[rstickle]

When I was signed up in '82 just past my 17th birthday nobody required me to show a GED or HS diploma. Good thing cause I didn't have either one. I think back then they were just desperate for warm bodies, the military wasn't a very popular career track at the time.

Interesting, when I went joined in mid-1964 I don't think either GED or HS were required, since I had neither.

I do know that I and 4 others who had high scores on the multitude of entry tests they gave us at the induction station were actually marched to the Education Center (at Ft. Dix) and made to take the GED during basic training. As far as I know all of us passed it, so we all had GEDs when we left Basic.

 

[str8shooter]

Interesting, when I went joined in mid-1964 I don't think either GED or HS were required, since I had neither.

I do know that I and 4 others who had high scores on the multitude of entry tests they gave us at the induction station were actually marched to the Education Center (at Ft. Dix) and made to take the GED during basic training. As far as I know all of us passed it, so we all had GEDs when we left Basic.

3 years in my training NCOIC called me in his office and asked why I didn't have either a diploma or GED. I told him no one had asked me before to show one. He chuckled and signed me up for night school so I could get my diploma. That time happened to fall on barracks field day Thursday nights, so it was fine with me. GI1.i don't think my recruiter followed SOP

 

[CharlieEcho]

Safer yet;

I think the DD214 approach is a winner. All you have to ask is, "Where do you keep your DD214?" THAT is one that most vets can answer.

Mine's in the bank lock box.

Very shortly after I arrived home, with my DD214 in hand, my dad suggested I immediately take the original to the County Courthouse and have it recorded. Then have copies made. Needed a copy for the school, draft board, and something else I can't recall.

About two years later I did the same with my Official Discharge Document. I also sent a request for an updated DD214 from the records offices. I received a copy of my dads seperation papers instead. So I had to resubmit. Dad was in WWII Marines and still knew his service number when I presented the papers I'd received.

Having your discharge recorded in courthouse records should be a pretty safe place. At least it was back in the "old" days.

 

[Ducimus]

I don't think anyone would ever fake being an Air Force vet. Some folks in the AF do get dirty, but by and large, the branch gets no respect. I guess that's a perk though, nobody pretends to be AF, nothing glamorous about that.

Still though, AF has its own jargon, any faker would be easy to spot.

edit:
And yeah, General orders? That sounds like something i heard in the first half of Full Metal Jacket when "Joker" is still in basic. AF doesn't have general orders. Gimme a 341!

 

[Horst Apies]

Wrong on the USAF posers. I met one this summer who told me that his records had been lost in the St. Louis fire and he couldn't prove that he'd served. When I told him that there would be a record of his fingerprints he just stared at me.

Of the veterans organizations I belong to, all require a DD214 for verification for applicants. For many years, the Marine Corps League allowed local detachments to verify an applicant's service and you can imagine what happened. They lost a lot of credibility around here when a member of a color guard was unable to even come close to a "left shoulder - arms!" Now the MCL requires the 214 to be forwarded to national and the applicant must have completed boot camp or OCS. The posers were grandfathered in.

 

[osokusmc]

Whenever I'm posing, I pose as a civilian. People are in total awe of how kick ass I am without ever having had the help of the Marine Corps. They all seem to be under the impression that only Marines can be as good as me.

 

[Ducimus]

Wrong on the USAF posers.

Alrighty then, i stand corrected. Why on God's green earth anyone would pretend to have been in the AF when they have much more eye catching things to choose from I have no idea.

Personally I've only run into two posers that i KNOW where posers. One was some panhandler, said he was ex military. At the time I just left active so i asked him a couple random questions about his service. I don't remember what i asked him or his responses (this was many years ago), but i remember pegging him for the BS he was spewing.

Second run in, was the most blatant poser EVER. At the time i had just transferred out of the Horse into base maintanence. Some GS-11 in my shop. He'd go on and on about how he was a Seal in vietnam. Had a budswiser badge and some T shirts on his wall that I could have bought at a freaking surplus store. WHere I really pegged him was when i was teaching a younger airman how to do stuff, and pulled out a Seabee manual I had. (Builder 1 & 2).He see's this, and all of a sudden he's in the Seabees for a year. Yeah right...... I may not have been navy, but I know how CE circles run and i'm pretty certain nobody goes to the Seabea's for a year.