Navy weighs renaming carrier slated to honor Black war hero, potentially switching it to Trump

[archives]

Let's take it up a notch, and see who is out their depth here:

About 8.7 million men served during the Vietnam era. Of that, 3.3 million were actually in-theater in Vietnam. That includes roughly 600 thousand who were Air Force or Navy personnel that were either offshore or flying into and out of Vietnam on missions.

Draftees made up about 30% of that total. That's far less than in previous wars where a draft was held. About 10% of draftees were voluntary. This sounds counter intuitive but it isn't when you consider things. Those that volunteered for the draft served just two years where they would have to serve 3 or 4 if they enlisted for service instead. By being voluntarily drafted, they got a shorter term of service.

Do the math here: There's roughly a 10% chance that someone drafted would end up in Vietnam. Only the Army took draftees. The Marines, Navy, and Air Force remained volunteer services.

Your confusion comes from the fact that draftees that did serve in Vietnam were likely to be in combat units even though they represent a minority of the manpower in those units. Being junior in rank places them in positions more likely to be ones where they are killed or wounded. That's because they lack time in service and rank.

So, volunteers and career soldiers got more of the safer positions in combat units (like administrative, artillery, armor, support, engineering etc.) while the junior and low rank draftees were put in more dangerous jobs like combat infantry. But that said, they still represent a small fraction of the total number that served in Vietnam.

Overall, the death rate for draftees that went to Vietnam was 3.5% while that for volunteers and career military was 2.8.

Vietnam War Draft Statistics | Verified 2026 Data

Our in-depth market data report on vietnam war draft. Explore verified statistics and the latest research.

worldmetrics.org

Ah, did I not say that scenario has always been accurate, nothing new, and irrelevant to your comments, anyone who was in the Army knew the larger percentage of troops were backup or administrative, it’s the Army bureaucracy, but if drafted your chances of landing one of those gigs was less probable

You endorsed one of my points, “volunteers and career soldiers got more of the safer positions,” and you are incorrect on the statistics of draftees killed in Vietnam (http://americanwarlibrary.com/vietnam/vwc8.htm)

And how specifically did one volunteer for the draft and how did that differ from being drafted? US’s were US’s

 

[T. A. Gardner]

Ah, did I not say that scenario has always been accurate, nothing new, and irrelevant to your comments, anyone who was in the Army knew the larger percentage of troops were backup or administrative, it’s the Army bureaucracy, but if drafted your chances of landing one of those gigs was less probable

You endorsed one of my points, “volunteers and career soldiers got more of the safer positions,” and you are incorrect on the statistics of draftees killed in Vietnam (http://americanwarlibrary.com/vietnam/vwc8.htm)

I agree there. If drafted, you were far more likely to be put in a basic job that required less training time.

And how specifically did one volunteer for the draft and how did that differ from being drafted? US’s were US’s

The way it worked was you knew you were going to likely be drafted in the near future, say after your college deferment ended. So, you went to the draft board and asked them to draft you, voluntarily signing up to be drafted, say in 4 months. The draft board had a quota to meet each month, so they were more than happy to accommodate your request.

You got drafted when you wanted to go because you knew you were going to be drafted anyway, and you did two years instead of 3 or 4 if you volunteered for service instead.

Only a small fraction of draftees did this, but it did happen.