On Mon, 26 Feb 2018 05:24:36 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

wrote:
On Sun, 25 Feb 2018 23:02:13 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:


I wonder how many service members are discharged before turning 21
anyway, but I understand your point. Military service matures most.


Very few, I'd reckon.


Kiddy cruise. Join the navy reserves while in high school. When you
graduated, went to basic and 2 years duty. Then discharged. At least
when I was in high school.

That was pretty much everyone who was drafted when that was a thing
and the 4 years after your 2 "in" was inactive reserve.
Unfortunately they "extended" a lot of those guys in the late 60s,
exploiting that inactive reserve clause. The guys in the grass were
usually 2 and out if they didn't re up but there were a lot of support
USAF and maybe even navy guys with critical skills who had to do the
whole 6 year nut.
I was in a 1 year reserve program that got extended by a month (13
months active duty), putting me pretty much in the same VA category as
a 2 year guy. I never used any of it.


I transferred out of my reserve unit 5 days before the general volunteered
the wing for active duty with the Pueblo crisis. He got another star and
all the rest of the unit pretty much got screwed.

We had a Lt Cmdr who resigned his commission in the USCGR because he
had decided the Coast Guard was going to call up a unit and the unit
they were most likely to call was the ORTAUG ("ship augmentation" deck
apes) in Washington DC.
In the end he screwed up. They never called up any units
It was really silly anyway. The only CG units in Vietnam were river
patrol boats and pretty much all of the reserves were there to provide
manpower on Navy vessels. There was no shortage of those Navy guys and
they would probably have wanted the guys in the ORTEL anyway
(Electronic rates).
They had more volunteers for the river boats than slots so that was
not going to be a thing.