Joseph "Red Dog" Campbell, drummer for the Almost Brothers was a USMC Viet Nam vet.

Toy Caldwell

Country Joe McDonald

Elvis Presley

Billy Cox. He met Hendrix while both were serving at Fort Campbell, Ky, in 1961.

Johnny Cash-USAF Intelligence Cold War
Gene Autry- Army Air Forces WWII
John Coltrane-Navy Vietnam
B.B. King-Army WWII
Howlin Wolf-Army WWII

And, one to shock you, but very true:

Told to enlist by the judge after he stole his mother's car, I give you

Drum Roll

ta
ta
ta
ta
ta
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ta
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Jerry Garcia-Army Vietnam

Not shocking at all, lots of hippies were vets. Look at Country Joe, flat out anti-war vet. How many people decided Vietnam was a sick joke because of Fixin To Die Rag? How many soldiers in Vietnam came back pissed off about that colossal c-f*ck? Reserves still qualifies garcia as a vet tho - in reserves your life belongs to Uncle Sam so it is a huge sacrifice to be there available for call up.

I had no idea Coltrane was in navy in Vietnam? really? During those years he was gigging constantly. That cant be right. Maybe earlier?

[Edited on 5/27/2019 by BrerRabbit]

Johnny Cash-USAF Intelligence Cold War
Gene Autry- Army Air Forces WWII
John Coltrane-Navy Vietnam
B.B. King-Army WWII
Howlin Wolf-Army WWII

And, one to shock you, but very true:

Told to enlist by the judge after he stole his mother's car, I give you

Drum Roll

ta
ta
ta
ta
ta
ta
ta
ta
ta
ta

Jerry Garcia-Army Vietnam

Garcia never set foot in Vietnam. He was in the army reserves in 1963.

Didn't have to, he's still considered a Vietnam era vet, same as the guys in Quartermaster Corps that never went overseas.

Not shocking at all, lots of hippies were vets. Look at Country Joe, flat out anti-war vet. How many people decided Vietnam was a sick joke because of Fixin To Die Rag? How many soldiers in Vietnam came back pissed off about that colossal c-f*ck? Reserves still qualifies garcia as a vet tho - in reserves your life belongs to Uncle Sam so it is a huge sacrifice to be there available for call up.

I had no idea Coltrane was in navy in Vietnam? really? During those years he was gigging constantly. That cant be right. Maybe earlier?

[Edited on 5/27/2019 by BrerRabbit]

Grunts got tired of seeing troops getting killed to "take a hill/village" and then see the choppers come in and take everybody back.
Pilots got tired of being shot at and then told "let me check if you can return fire". My brother told me about how in the late 60's ( AF communications) that many times the request had to go to the State dept and several embassies before the order to release weapons came back-while the pilot was being shot at.
Too many times too many soldiers died to take back ground they had held and gave back.
Political considerations were more important than lives back then I guess. Big body counts were the thing.

Ok, just checked on John Coltrane, Navy 1945, his first recordings were with the base jazz band, Pearl Harbor

Mickey Hart, four years USAF 61-65 , taught martial arts to SAC units in Europe.

Merl Saunders USAF 1953-1957

Maynard James Keenan

Ice T

Tony Bennett

[Edited on 5/29/2019 by 2112]