OK we've had allot of humor comics lately so lets change it up.
I posted all of these to megaupload
#1 &2 download
#3-6 download
#7-10 download
#11 download
enjoy!
I posted all of these to megaupload
#1 &2 download
#3-6 download
#7-10 download
#11 download
enjoy!
7 comments:
Hey ZT,
I hope you didn't think I meant I was nostalgic when I was rambling a few days ago. I'll give these a look though, I've never checked what comic books were saying about Nam. Or Iraq & Afghanistan either if there are war comics for them.
nah :)
and ya theres some great nam stuff out there - dont really think this is the best at all but still enjoyable enough
When judging "Jungle War Stories" (which became "Guerilla War" #12 through final issue #14), remember that all the stories were written in the 1962-1965 time frame, when American involvement was minimal. (Ground troops weren't sent until March 1965, and none of these stories show any U.S. ground forces at all.)
DC Comics' war comic books also showed heroic Viewnam war stories during this period, but switched back to tales of earlier wars after Vietnam became controversial.
Drew,
You're mistaken by many years about when US ground troops were sent to Nam. I don't want to disrupt the friendly atmosphere here by reviving old arguments or debating who was telling what lies. Though since you say none of the stories show any US ground forces at all and the cover shown clearly depicts US soldiers, I can't resist asking the old question, "Do they walk on air?".
My family was very relieved in 61 or 62 after one of my brothers got drafted that he was sent to West Germany not Viet Nam. My father was Navy and shipboard in Nam aside from shore leave & maybe some incidental stuff but I think he came under Viet Minh artillery fire as far back as the 40s and his last long shipboard/sea assignment (I've forgotten the proper term for this)was the post Dien Bien Phu North-South civilian transport in 1954-55. I wasn't drafted and didn't enlist so avoided the Viet Nam/Indochinese War though I'm old enough I could have been drafted and sent to Nam.
It's pretty subjective to say when the war became controversial. We're probably in rough agreement about when it became *very* controversial.
Anyway, here's a link for ZT to an archive that's partly related to this. Got The Things They Carried (Viet Nam), Catch 22 (WWII but had strong resonance and popularity during Nam) and Sometimes A Great Notion which just fits well with these. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TCBTFMTU
Orange Sunshine,
There's nothing disruptive or unfriendly about differences of opinion, but what I said is accurate.
Several of the covers depict what appear to be regular US ground troops in action, but NONE of the stories do. I've read them all, and the Americans are all depicted as "observers" or advisors, sometimes airborne rangers, who are accompanying South Vietnamese military forces into combat. You don't see any Marine or US Army combat units in action. (So to answer your question, the soldiers on the cover "walk on fantasy.")
The first US ground combat unit assigned to Vietnam was in March 1965. This consisted of 3,500 Marines whose "defensive" mission was to protect US air bases in the country. By the end of that year, ground combat forces had increased to almost 200,000 and were directly involved in offensive actions. (No one denies that US "advisors" had been involved in combat prior to 1965, but they weren't designated as combat ground troops.)
Since you've shared some of your history, I'll tell you a bit of mine. I was 20 years old in 1965, but in college and headed for medical school, so in no immediate danger of being drafted. By the early 1970s, many male physicians were being drafted as soon as they completed their internship, but in 1973 Nixon ended the draft one month before I became eligible. So instead of spending two years as a US Army captain in Vietnam, I ended up later joining the Air Force for a 21-year career -- strange how things work out.
Hi Drew,
The old controversy about "advisors" not being "ground troops", "combat troops" or "ground combat troops" just because they weren't officially called that is what I was referencing. I'm not sure if the question, "Do (or did) they walk on air?" isn't familiar to you or you're expressing your opinion with "walk on fantasy." :) I'd thought it would be familiar for those around my age and older though I wasn't sure about younger readers.
I chose not to apply for a student deferment though I was eligible starting in 1970 and the SSS site leaves me unclear whether I was mistaken a deferment would have lasted until graduation or failure to meet the satisfactory progress towards a degree provision. http://www.sss.gov/viet.htm What you write indicates whatever changes were enacted or took effect in 1971 didn't shorten the deferment for people who'd started it under the earlier rules. Is that right or was there something special about medical student deferments? I'd decided not to request a deferment before the draft law changed so I might have just not paid attention to deferment changes that were part of it.
I was 20 in 1972 so the only people younger than me who were drafted were ones who were born the same year and had an RSN of 95 or lower but I remember uncertainty about whether the US might start a sudden, massive "re-americanization" of the war since the "vietnamization" was pretty clearly leading to a military reunification of Viet Nam. Probably hard for people to imagine now but not so hard to imagine until sometime in 1975. I sometimes wonder if this had any connection to my not getting reclassified from 1-A to 1-H until sometime in 1974 or later when I should have been reclassified the beginning of 1973.
My choice about not applying for a student deferment doesn't imply I have a negative or positive opinion about those who did apply for student or other deferments. I don't want anyone to misunderstand that.
I haven't read the comics yet so I've nothing to say about the stories. I started tripping about a friend's death and this isn't a good time for me to read them. (Long story) His brother, who was a closer friend, joined the Air Force a few months later.
Hi Orange Sunshine,
It sounds like you were fortunate that you didn't get a draft notice in the early 70s.
Between 1963 (when I turned 18) and 1973, I had exactly two deferments. My original college deferment, with the pre-1971 rules, ended in 1967 when I entered medical school, and the medical student deferment took over. The big difference in the medical deferment was its greatly expanded window of eligibility.
Draft eligibility for individuals with standard, non-medical deferments ended at age 26. Once you reached your 26th birthday, you were safe.
The medical training deferment ended after completion of internship, regardless of age (I was almost 28), BUT licensed physicians would then remain elgible to be drafted up to the age of THIRTY-FIVE -- making it extremely difficult for young doctors to make plans for a civilian career while a war was going on.
Even after Nixon ended the general draft in 1973, the government briefly considered continuing a special draft for doctors only -- quite a discomforting idea at the time.
Fortunately, the government came up with the wiser idea of paying volunteer doctors various medical pay bonuses, bringing their military pay closer to parity with civilian practice.
BTW, I'm obviously old neough to have heard the phrase, "walking on air" -- but somehow don't remember it :-)
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