My sisters and myself grew up knowing ( via our Father) that our Father had served in Vietnam as a member of the Special Forces. However, he was never very specific about the dates he was there or details about his service. We had even been with our Father on one occasion when a man at a restaurant we were dining at approached him and recognized him as a fellow Vietnam Veteran.
When our Father passed away, we had a very difficult time obtaining a copy of his DD 214 and ultimately had the state Senators' office do the inquiry and obtain the paperwork. We we did receive it, we were all extremely surprised that it showed no service overseas - period. When we called to verify the info, we were told that according to his record, he had never served active duty outside of the US.
Has anyone else ever experienced anything similar to this? Is there still much that is classified in terms of the US involvement in Vietnam? Our Fathers DD 214 has numerous corrections and what looks like info that has been typed over - is there anyone who would be able to look at a DD 214 and see if it appears normal or altered?
I would really appreciate any information or a direction to pursue this - it is strange to think that our Father would put so much effort into creating this persona. I do have many of his medals and photos of him in uniform- so it seems like something is not just right.
Thanks for any input that you can provide.

There are people that are in the military and never go overseas. But it being altered I would wonder too.
He may have been in some classified thing that they don't want anybody to know about.

What was his highest rank?
What medals does he have?
Like I doubt someone with only a USA desk job is likely to have a purple heart.

I should add that his years of military service were 1960 - 1967.

If he was part of the Spc Ops then there are certain times where "black ops" missions are kept off the unclassified DD214 for security reasons. There is another type of DD214, by a different # and title, which holds “classified” operations of personnel. If he was in the Special Forces, not saying you're lying so please don't think that, there is a possibility that his missions were or still classified.


And if that is so, trust me; you will never get your hands on those documents.