Question for Vietnam Era Marines
I’ve got a set of records on a Marine who spent a year in Vietnam (Aug ’69 – Aug ’70). He entered service in Jan. 69 and was discharged Aug. 70. His last unit was designated in his records as “SU/1 CASCO, H&S Bn., MCB CAMPEN, CA.”
After a bunch of Googling, I know that it means he was assigned to the Headquarters & Service Battalion at Camp Pendleton (garrison HQ for us Army guys), and I’m guessing the CASCO is probably Casualty Company, but what I don’t know is if the Casualty Company was medical casualties or personnel casualties (in military speak, a personnel casualty doesn’t work because he’s on the way out of the military or on his way to another base or unit).
His records say he was RELACDU (another Google search tells me that means “Released From Active Duty” to Marines) on August 21, 1970 after arriving at Pendleton on August 5, 1970.
Keep in mind, this person is claiming that he’s a “100% disabled veteran”, but there’s no Purple Heart in his records. So I’m wondering how he became disabled. How was it possible he was released before his term of service ended? I think a Marine’s term of service was three years then and a two year draftee in the Marines was exceedingly rare.
Anyone have any ideas or might know someone who would know?
Category: Military issues
Jonn, he may have been injured on active duty while in the performance of his duties, and released as a result of the findings of a medical board.
Although I was Navy, that was basically what happened to me.
Could’ve been an accident.
A buddy of mine was at Ft Knox getting ready to be a tanker or something. One cold day/evening he was unloading boxes from the back of a truck, slipped on a patch of ice, landed on his back hard and wrong, and bang, earned himself a boot out the door and a decent percentage of disability. He’d been in for a year or so I think.
Another guy I know was at BUD/S, had a guy fall into him during some exercise thing, landed on his elbow funny, and ripped the ligaments and stuff. He was on a really low disability percentage, but they told him he could either go home or be at a desk for the rest of enlistment. He decided to get out. He’d already passed hell week so he was really ticked about the whole thing. He’s on some Discovery channel show for about 2 seconds.
Also keep in mind that ‘100% disabled veteran’ and ‘100% service connected disabled veteran’ are two different terms. The distinction is not trivial. Even The Purple Heart is not all that relevant.
Got a friend who was disabled when his jeep rolled over on him in Korea. No combat, no Purple Heart, etc.
I’m not sure how he is presenting it, but it is possible to have service connected physical disabilities from the time in combat and no purple heart.
A lot of Vietnam era veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange are developing conditions related to their exposure (e.g. Diabetes, cardiac problems, etc.) that could result in a 100% disability rating. The impact on functioning can worsen with time. Other physical injuries can be an annoyance at the time and worsen with age as well (knee problems in paratroopers come to mind). He may also have a mental health condition that (in combination with physical conditions or, rarely, by itself) has resulted in the VA deeming him permanently and totally disabled.
Jonn,
“CASCO” is an abbreviation for “Casual Company”, which is a sort of holding pen for Marines awaiting reassignment to other duties or transition from active duty. I’m not sure what the SU/1 part means… maybe it stands for “Separation Unit”. When my term of active duty ended in 1969, I somehow found myself at the Marine Barracks, Treasure Island Navy Base and the entry in my service record says “Separation Section, MB”.
At that time, as I recall, the Marine Corps was forced to rely on draftees to meet force requirements. There was a provision in the Marine Corps Personnel Manual that authorized the discharge (Release from Active Duty) of those Marines returning from overseas with less than six months remaining on their obligation. The discharge was for the “convenience of the government (COG)”
If you have a copy of the DD-214 it should have a block that cites the authority for the RELACDU.
It is my recollection that during that period it was very common for Marines finishing their first enlistment to be returning from overseas (mostly Vietnam, but some from a float in the Med) to be “short timers” and to be sent to Casual Company for outprocessing. I may be wrong, but I believe that any Marine who was 100 % disabled with a service connected injury would have been processed through a Naval Hospital, not Casual Company. And would have been “medically retired” not released from active duty.
Just based on what you have stated above, I would have grave doubts that his claim has any validity.
Was he discharged with 100% disability, or is that his rating now? He might have been discharged with a lower rating that worsened over time and the VA may have increased his rating percentage over the past 40 years.
There is also the possibility that he is honorably discharged, and is rated at 100% by the Social Security Administration for other reasons not related to his service.
That would allow him to “technically” say he was a 100% disabled veteran.
just thinking out loud this morning.
Respects,
Your VA and service disability ratings have nothing to do with one another. You can have a very low service disability rating and have an extremely high one from the VA. There is a 30% difference between my Army and VA ratings. The VA rating wouldn’t be denoted on any USMC paperwork as it would not have even been created at the time of discharge.
I enlisted in the Corps in December of 1967. At that time there was a two year enlistment. I spent 18 months and 27 days in the USMC. At that time if you were a grunt, and you had less than 6 months to do on your initial enlistment and you were a Corporal – E-4 or below you were given a choice.
Either re-enlist or you would be seperated from the Corps at the conveniance of the Marine Corps when you returned from Vietnam.
There was a public law at the time that stipulated that you could not be sent back to Viet Nam for a period of 12 months.
There were literaly thousand and thousand of grunts who were
coming back with less than 6 months to do that were discharged upon return to CONUS. None of us were unhappy about getting the early out. Semper Fi
Ran out of space.
Marine 6 responded that the Corps was relying on the draft to fill the ranks. This is another oft told but factualy wrong VN era story. I knew of one draftee during my entire tour of duty in the USMC. I met that guy in boot camp. Sevice in 1/27/1 and 1/4/3 did not produce one grunt in the Corps that was a draftee. This may be ancedotal, but I remember reading that the Corps drafted less than 5000 during the entire war. That is less than one percent of the authorized strenght of the Corps for one year of the war.
Good for me, as I would not want to have served in combat with the Marines with a guy who had not volunteered.
Semper Fi.
…I don’t have the numbers for previous years, but between May and October of 1968 the Marine Corps accepted 19,573 draftees… (official USMC number) this was the annual total. That was a relatively small number in the expanded Marine Corps of the Vietnam period. I met a few, but only in later years. …The Marine Corps did not want to become flooded with draftees. A brief period of taking two year enlistees ended early in 1966… In July of 1966 it was deemed urgent that the Corps return to having two year enlistments available. …The Commandant decreed that two-year contracts would not exceed 20%… Between 1 July 1966 and 30 June 1967, only 16.9% of all elistments were for two years. …I went in for 2 years… I enlisted on the “delay” program (sworn, but no active duty until high school graduation) on April 8, 1968. I went on active duty on June 12, 1968… My last day of active duty was June 11, 1970. …After two years… which included any Vietnam service, you were tranferred to the inactive reserve… but had no drills or summer camps. …At the time that I went in, the Marine Corps had no MOS guarantees… except for “Aviation guarantee” (wingwalkers) for four year men who qualified… Otherwise, your four years might be spent as a cook or something equally not to your liking. … With the two year program it was about 98% certain that you would be combat arms and sent to FMFPAC (Vietnam…) I was an 0311 (rifleman) …One good deal was to sign up for two years, and after boot camp extend your enlistment for a year in exchange for MOS of your choice (for which you qualified…) …As to “casual” units… Paperwork snafu caused me to be held over at 3rd Bn HQ graduate casual section after graduation… A quick phone call to HQMC would have cleared up… but had to be handled in writing. Three months later I was sent to ITR. …Most graduate casuals at MCRD were on their way in two weeks… but two who worked in… Read more »
I was a Marine Corps Draftee (March, 1966 to March,1968.) I consider myself to have been as good a Marine as if I had enlisted. I have always been patriotic and a proud graduate od Platoon 381, 3rd Battalion,Parris Island,S.Car.I was in Casual platoon with a broken foot suffered at the end of training and had to work in the Unit Diary section every day in Casual Platoon.I have written a book about my experiences there,titled MARINE CORPS DRAFTEE,published 2013.
Saw where you were a Plt 381 Marine in boot camp. What is your name? That was my platoon also. My name is Thomas Sterling. Retired Marine now working civil service at Cherry Point, N.C.