Find Zip Code Vietnam

[Tamela]

Weare in the process of adding names to our Vietnam Veterans Memorial in our city and we need to verify that the names we add are those of veterans who were IN Vietnam. Some of them have on them that they were in Vietnam and others I can't find anything that tells me they were ever there, but they swear they were in country. Is there another way for me to verify this information?

For Army, this may not help verify service in Vietnam since it may be a replacement unit or one stationed in another area such as USAREUR (US Army, Europe)

For Navy ships listed, if the ship is listed on this list prepared by the VA -- , the veteran can claim Vietnam service.

For Marine Corps units, check the Marine Corps Command Chronologies at -corps/command-chronology for units that were stationed in Vietnam.

For Air Force units, please check the listing at -Sheets/Article/639594/usaf-units-serving-in-south-vietnam-1965-1973/

In most cases it will be listed on he DD214 in Box 26, "Decorations, Medals, Badges, Commendations, Citations and Campaign Ribbons Awarded or Authorized."

It can also be found in the OMPF (Official Military Personnel File) - aka Service Jacket - on the page "History of Assignments" or something similar.

The person of interest was involved in SPECOPS or other classified operations. I know of Navy personnel who were stationed in Vietnam (TAD from Okinawa to Phu Bhi) who have no mention of this in their OMPF or DD214. But there is another file - that is classified - which might contain records of detatched duty assignments and other sensitive operations.

The reason I know of the existence of this other file is that my classified records along with my OMPF are languishing at McDill AFB with the VA representative who is reviewing my case.

Good luck.

USAF Air Cargo Spec 71-73, 63 MAC. I am not an expert on military records but my full records were pulled and much is missing. If you were assigned to a base anywhere in the world, its in your records. For example I was assigned to Norton AFB California and thats in my records. My job involved Cargo Planes. The military may temporarily send you anywhere in the world. You get TDY orders = Temporary Duty assignment. If I was sent TDY to Cam Ranh Bay Vietnam there is no proving that. A TDY Vietnam trip would not show up unless you were crew (pilot, navigator, flight engineer, loadmaster).. If your TDY, not based in Vietnam, and not aircrew you do not get a Vietnam campaign medal as far as I can tell. The problem I ran into was the USAF did not keep TDY records so there is nothing in my file except assigned bases. I cannot prove my TDY flights unless I can find someone that happened to be on the same flight 50 years ago and remembered me enough to validate me. Not gonna happen. I suspect someone just threw out the TDY papers as a bookkeeping issue deemed not important. Remember its the 60 and 70s all manual papers then no computerized files like we have today.

Some USAF units served in Vietnam before the Vietnam Service Medal existed, the time from 1961-1965. In the early years service members in Vietnam were awarded the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, which will show up on the DD-214. Service members could elect to exchange the AFEM for the Vietnam Service Medal later.

Personal assigned to a unit in Direct Combat Support received Vietnam service credit and were awarded the Vietnam Service and Vietnam Campaign Medals even though they were never in country. For example, U.S. Army Support Thailand. Also Airforce personnel based in Thailand who were not pilots or crewmen.

You can check with the Defense Fiance and Accounting records. All pays received during a military persons service is recorded. As such, hazardous duty pay, combat pay (received by anyone in a combat zone of which included Vietnam) would be reflected, such as tax deferment for service in a combat area, etc. - see the following -

He'll explain there's a weapons cache he and his buddies put together but the code is on the inscribed on the bottom of each of their lighters. Unfortunately, everyone but him is dead so it's your job to go find the lighters to unlock the cache.

Go through this broken window, into the bathroom then out of this window. Walk along the roof and jump through the next window before heading down the stairs into the kitchen. There's a man's body slumped over some boxes and at his feet is a keycard.

I've seen a few articles about the WWII era radiomen, and I agree that in some way we should keep recording their history. I find these articles quite interesting for both personal and military history. I was a Vietnam era radioman in the Navy, and radiomen of this era are now either in or getting into our 60s. So I'd like to add to the recorded history.

I enlisted in the Navy in August of 1965. At that time the "conflict" in Vietnam was starting to "crank" up. I was 17 and just graduated from high school; college wasn't really in my plans but looking for a job was. I lived in Delaware, Ohio at the time and even though it was the county seat it was still a fairly small town, not like the big cities where jobs were plentiful. I would apply for a job and one of the first questions they would ask me was "how old are you?" and "are you still in high school?" It became rather obvious that they didn't want to hire me and then, 6 months later when I got drafted, hire someone else, so I decided that rather than wait for my "Greetings" letter I would talk with the Navy recruiter.

I have heard many stories of armed forces recruiters who would promise you anything just as long as you signed on the dotted line. I have to say that the recruiter I spoke with, Chief Teeple, was an honest man. He told me I should sign up for the "High School Seaman Recruit" program, which basically guaranteed me any class "A" school that I qualified for. I enlisted on August 24, 1965 and left for boot camp at the Naval Training Command (NTC) in Great Lakes, Illinois. Among the many tests the first week was the code test. They sent the letters "I, N, T" at different speeds and, since I had already learned the code in the Boy Scouts, I did quite well. The second week of boot camp we filled out our "dream sheets" as to what we wanted to do for our time in the Navy. My first choice was radioman and that's what I got.

Radioman "A" school was at US Naval Training Command (USNTC), Bainbridge Maryland, the base had been built during the 40s, the usual stories of how it was only supposed to be a "temp" base but here it was, still going in the mid 60s, the buildings were hot in the summer and cold in the winter, a building inspector's nightmare and cockroach city.

Radioman "A" school was 24 weeks long; classes consisted of code practice and electronic theory. First we had to learn how to type. The first day of class I sat down at the typewriter and noticed the telegraph key was on the right side. I mentioned to the Chief, who was our instructor, that I was left handed and he said "you will never find a setup in the military with the key on the left side; learn to use your right hand!" To this day I use my right hand for sending and using the mouse on my computer.

We were taught to type on the "mill," a typewriter with all upper case letters (as we know, there is no shift in CW). After the first week of learning to type we started learning to type the Morse code that we heard. We were required to copy and send 18 wpm in order to graduate from the school. It was a real struggle for some; they hated code!

For me the electronics theory was new. The first course was DC Theory followed by AC Theory. I admit that I wasn't the most "motivated" student. My study and learning habits up to this time were not that great. After failing two finals in a row my section Chief called me into his office. I received a very motivational talking to. He pointed out that I was doing very well in code but if I failed one more test I would flunk out. He went on to say that anyone failing school was sent out to become an "artist." The Navy was taking ships out of mothballs and needed people to paint them. He "suggested" that he hold on to my liberty card for a while and that I should "consider" going to the Saturday extra help classes. It's simply amazing what a few well spoken words can do for someone. I passed every test after that and discovered I had an interest in radio and electronics.

One interesting experience that I had was when learning about transmitters and troubleshooting. They had these huge, WWII era transmitters to train on. You had to use a frequency meter to set the transmit frequency and tune them up. These transmitters and the URC-32s transmitter-receivers gave us a quick few minutes of exercise in that we had to squat down and start at the bottom and work our way up. Depending on your troubleshooting ability, you usually ended up doing at least three or four deep knee bends!

For the troubleshooting portion the instructor had removed the lead from the plate of one of the final tubes. He told me to analyze the trouble, show him how to fix it and then tune-up the transmitter on a certain frequency. I was able to tune-up the transmitter with no problems and after I was done the instructor opened the transmitter and found that the stranded wire had been in position for so long it simply sprang back and was touching the top of the tube!

As I mentioned, the school was 24 weeks long. Twenty-two out of the 24 weeks were devoted to code, sending and receiving. The last 2 weeks covered teletype (TTY) procedures. In looking back I wonder why it wasn't the other way around. When we graduated and went out to the fleet radioteletype (RTTY) was the most often used form of communications!

In talking with other radiomen it seems that on large ships and shore installations all they did was RTTY. Code was rarely used and, if it was needed, it was usually the more senior radiomen that operated those radio frequencies (circuits). The only time you had to demonstrate proficiency with code was the sending and receiving test for Radioman Third Class and above. If I remember correctly, Radioman Third was 20 wpm; the rest of the test was electronic theory and procedures.

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