My uncle recently just had an aneurysm and nearly died. I realized he's pushing 70 years old and I probably don't have much longer with him left, so before I forget the details, I'm going to put his story here

My uncle was 16-years-old in 1970 when he went down to the United States from Canada to join the U.S Marine Corps. He had went with a few friends wanting to join the war and fight in Vietnam because in his own words, "we didn't want to miss out on the fun."

Upon going to the recruitment office, my uncle lied about his age and name, claiming his name was John Lee and saying he was 18 years of age. He had told the recruiter why he wanted to fight, and the Recruiter flat-out looked him in the eye and said he was an idiot. But, he wanted to go so at the age of 16, he set out for Marine boot camp.

From this point on, his stories get vague. Upon graduation he was sent to an infantry unit Vietnam where he recalls he was sitting with a few other boots, he was just a private. Someone of higher rank, I forget what he said it was, came up and offered them a promotion to Lance Corporal if one of them would become a helicopter gunner. My uncle not knowing the danger of that volunteered and got his promotion. He recalls the guns on the helicopter were very heavy, and upon shooting the things were barely locked into the floor so any shooting would result in massive shaking and decreased accuracy. He had claimed what he experienced was nowhere near as bad as what the guys on the ground experienced since he was safe in the air, but one day going on a mission enemy fire had hit something in the Helicopter and it blew up the gun he was using. The shrapnel from the attack cut his hand up and chunks of it still come out of his hand and arm to this day.

Upon getting patched up by a Corpsman, they had realized my uncle's age and name was fake. Upon this revelation they silently sent him back to Canada at age 17, he was only in Vietnam for 9 months before they found out his true identity. Upon returning home, my uncle said his parents were, "not particularly pleased." But his uncles were all WW2 veterans and they applauded him and were very supportive of what he had done.

I know this story is vague and missing a lot of details, but he doesn't like to talk about Vietnam much. It's not the best, but it means a lot to me. He's not even a U.S Citizen for his service due to lying about his age and name, so he's just a Canadian citizen still with no veterancy. One thing history books will often not tell you is just how many Canadians actually fought in Vietnam. For every 1 American that left, it's estimated 1 Canadian went down to fight.