Posted on Oct 24, 2014
SGM Senior Adviser, National Communications
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Since I asked the Q about having courage to ask Qs that may not be politically correct, here is one few talk about...
Posted in these groups: Air combat art 0134 CombatLeadership abstract 007 Leadership7761726f Friendly Fire
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MAJ Deputy Director, Combat Casualty Care Research Program
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Edited 10 y ago
I was talking to a Vietnam vet a few days ago about this topic. If anything he was saying is true, saluting from a 1LT was the least of your worries out there.
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SSG Ralph Watkins
SSG Ralph Watkins
10 y
I enlisted in 1979.  About a quarter of the people I went to my AIT with were Vietnam vets.  I heard this referenced all the time.  I heard it over the years.  I got out went in the Guard, worked for the VA.  I heard plenty of talk about it again but in the end I only ever heard of one guy who claimed they actually shot their LT in combat on purpose.  In Iraq, I heard it threatened several times but again, no cases of it ever happening.
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SGM Senior Adviser, National Communications
SGM (Join to see)
10 y
SSG Watkins...some say the life expectancy of a LT was not very long in VN perhaps as a result...but it was the NCOs who used to talk about being in the middle between soldiers and young officers--either one who might get them killed. In those days the NCOS were more likely to be married with children than the others. In my platoon in Tigerland, Ft Puke; nearly all of us destined for VN..we were pretty much 50-50 Black.White.Hispanic.Native American, with about 20% real thugs. When they dumped our gear out popped guns, switchblades, brass knuckles...lot of fun. Clay floor, screens, no air conditioning. Fire patrol including fire ants. Someone didn't like you they sprinkled sugar on your sheets. More ants. People disappeared. Vanished. Fights, blanket parties...not recruiting poster perfect. I lucked out as Platoon Guide with the Senior Drill being the most outstanding NCO I ever encountered then or now. He was tough and didn't take any crap. We had 1LTs and even 2LTs as company commanders due to a shortage of Captains and most were from OCS.
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CSM Civil Affairs Specialist
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Maybe not in the traditional sense of actually killing, but I am positive it happens via administrative action.  There's more than one way to get rid of a boss and I don't put it past anyone to lie in order to remove someone from the chain of command.
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SGM Senior Adviser, National Communications
SGM (Join to see)
10 y
MSG Archer, very true. Hadn't looked at it that way! During the draft, when I still a teen, soldiers we knew joked about dropping a "lifer's" 201 file behind the file cabinet so they'd miss a promo board or PCS...that was in 70s when most things were still driven by paper. So now you connected that dot!
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1LT William Clardy
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SGM (Join to see), "friendly fire" is one of the worst misnomers out there. I can't recall anybody I've ever met who considered any uninvited incoming fire (final protective fires qualify as "invited") to be the least bit friendly.

And it definitely did not cease after the withdrawal from Vietnam. As I recall, there was at least one Major who did not survive a live-fire assault in the early days of Fort Irwin.
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