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each do our jobs to the best of our ability—as always and ride out the rest of our tour in these staff billets as the War appeared to be picking up steam! (Commentary )
It appeared to many of us that many—not all- of the ‘transfer’ decisions being made were for ‘career enhancement’ reasons primarily. Wars make —or break careers. It had been 12 years since the Korean War had ended in 1953—many of our Marine NCOs and officers had served during that time—some of our NCOs and officers had not served during that war as they came along later. There was a twelve year ‘dry spell’ between conflicts. Combat is where career Marines earn their stripes—and their stars. Their ‘successful’ command experience under combat conditions is absolutely a career builder—along with the medals, awards and commendations that go with go with the territory. No one knew that the Viet Nam war would last ten years! Many of these ‘career bureaucrats’ as I call them thought the Conflict might end in a year—or two. Therefore, they pushed and lobbied for transfers in and out of command and then to staff billets early on—to build their resume—at the expense of continuity on the battlefield. Within six months of landing in Viet Nam the ‘musical chairs’ began as commanding officers were moved in and out of Command and/or staff positions—to build those resumes! These ‘transfers’ occurred up and down the chain of command but was extremely transparent at the Battalion, Regimental and Division levels. It was rare, indeed , to see a Regimental Commanding officer remain in that position for more than a few
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