If every worn out, old, hippy looking, pony tail wearing, jack ass who claims to have been in Viet Nam, had ever been assigned to Viet Nam, the entire country would have had to been used as Barracks.

ETA: I haven't ran across many Veti Nam vets who are that quick to shout about our country losing anything, I have seen lots of wannabes who never served at all, that claim to be Viet Nam vets talking about how we lost though.

Quoted: I am basing this on my own experience from what my father has mentioned to me, and he was in Vietnam. Guys who tell whomever will listen that they were Vietnam Vets propably never served.  The more embellished their accounts are about what they did the less likely the actually really did much at all.  I know quite a few guys who were pilots in Vietnam and the only time you hear them talk about Vietnam is when they are together sitting around a camp fire and when they do talk about it, it's not the main topic of discussion.  I believe this is quite common amongst combat vets, they will talk about their experiences with other combat vets and rarely with those that are not. Just my observations from personal experience.  Not meant to piss anyone off. So I think you did the right thing.

There are plenty of those guys who will gladly tell of thier exploits, especially the pilots, but like you said, they are more likely to talk about it around a campfire, or other social setting where people are sitting around swapping stories. My experience tells me that they generally use thier combat experience to convince people that thier experience makes them qualified for other opinions.

Quoted: Quoted: If every worn out, old, hippy looking, pony tail wearing, jack ass who claims to have been in Viet Nam, had ever been assigned to Viet Nam, the entire country would have had to been used as Barracks. ETA: I haven't ran across many Veti Nam vets who are that quick to shout about our country losing anything, I have seen lots of wannabes who never served at all, that claim to be Viet Nam vets talking about how we lost though. So how do I know if my History teacher is telling the truth.... cause he spouts the typical liberal shit, but seems to be wayyy too involved in vets' groups to be a poser.

I don't really know how without being confrontational, and with a teacher you don't want to be confrontational. I would pay very close attention to details he gives, and always ask for names of people, places and units, then use the internet to verify those details, if he gives a unit look for a unit alumni group on the web and contact them to see if any of them remeber your good friend who is looking to get in touch with his old buddies.

In High school we had a history teacher who had a PHD, he had only been at the school for a couple of years, and every chance he got told us of his exploits in Viet Nam, he was a member of the VFW, and a bunch of other vets groups including a Viet Nam Pilots organization, he had the Huey liscense plate frame and all. For a PHD he wasn't all that bright, he was very liberal and anti war, wich was not a very popular political point of view at this high school. My first clue was at open house, my parents made me go with them, and while we were in his class my dad noticed that he had a model of a Huey with all of the guns and rockets on it, my dad commented on how well built it was, the teacher told him that it was exactly like the one he flew in Viet Nam, my pop (who was weraing a peculiar OD Green Nomex Jumpsuit as the dipshit said it), remarked that that model of Huey wasn't in use until after Viet Nam. and the guy said of course he meant that it was armed exactly like the one he flew (wich could have been true). Later that year, the asshat went on to tell another class all about one of the famous battles in Viet Nam and how he was there, and told the class exactly wich unit he was supposed to be with, one of the kids in teh class recognized the unit and told him that he must have known his dad then, becuase his dad was in that same unit in Viet Nam, and had been shot down during the same battle. Of course he couldn't remeber if he knew his dad or not, and was sure that his dad wouldn't have remembered him. A couple of days later we had a new History teacher.

Did I mention that I went to Ft. Campbell High School (we were the Fighting Falcons, not Eagles of any sort), and there were an awful lot of kids with parents who were not only Viet Nam vets, but still on active duty, more than a few of them back in teh same units they had served with in Viet Nam? This guy was teaching on Ft. Campbell in the late eighties lying about being in the 101st in Viet Nam.

Quoted: And by the way, did you know that 40% of our troops in Iraq are NG and Reserves? How many of them do you think "want" to be there? How many volunteered for that kind of duty?

Every single one of them, there is not a soldier Sailor, Airman or Marine left in service who id there because they were drafted, every single one of them went to a recruiter and signed up. And if the Viet Namese hated us so bad, and despised us so much, why did the North Viet Namese kill and imprison millions of South Viet Namese? What lost that war was a apathetic US population and hippies making lots of noise. Propaganda lost that war.

Edited to add: I don't think I have ever read a more ignorant or inflamatory post. It reads like a cut and paste from teh worker party of the world, or some crap like that, or maybe the DU. And yes our forces in Iraq are really the gung ho baddas MFers we think they are, they are all volunteers, serving thier country wich is something that this jackass probably can't comprehend.