Is this possible for 17 y.o. boy to be sent to Laos?

[Marina Ivanova]

Wim, it was said on your site, that James E. Sutton was born on January 24, 1942; and “Files stated that he joined the U.S. Army in 1959, entered the 82nd Airborne, and was sent to Vietnam (Laos) as part of Operation White Star. Files did intelligence work and was among the first U.S. covert combat troops sent into Laos in 1959â€

[dankbaar]

Sure it's possible.

A lot of 17 and 18 year old boys enlisted for the Army.

Look at Oswald.

Everyone who has seen the battlefields of Vietnam knows there weren't many grandpa's, but mostly young kids.

Wim

[Mark Johansson]

[quote="Marina Ivanova"]Wim, it was said on your site, that James E. Sutton was born on January 24, 1942; and “Files stated that he joined the U.S. Army in 1959, entered the 82nd Airborne, and was sent to Vietnam (Laos) as part of Operation White Star. Files did intelligence work and was among the first U.S. covert combat troops sent into Laos in 1959â€

[Marina Ivanova]

Everyone who has seen the Soviet battlefields of Afganistan (1979-1986) knows there weren't many grandpa's (excluding some generals), but mostly young kids. However, call-up was from 19 years, but volunteers might be enlisted from 18. There were impossible to see 16 or 17 y.o. Russian boys at Afganistan war. Only when they were 18 y.o., i.e. in “full rightsâ€

[Dealey Joe]

I just ran across this old thread and wanted to comment.Back then It was not uncommon for boys to "join up" at 16 years of age, all that was needed was a parents signature.I personally had a brother in law that joined the Marines when he was 16.He fully retired after 20 years of service at the ripe old age of 36.

[Phil Dragoo]

Lee Harvey Oswald, born October 18, 1939; enlisted U.S. Marines October 24, 1956.Nine from sixteen carry the one: seventeen.

[ChristophMessner]

Nevertheless James Files could tell a bit more about his army time and his former comrades. All he does with his all-files-destroyed-no-other-memory-anymore-story is pushing him into the chapter "Big Hoaxes" of the history books. Compare his memories to the memory quality of Dangerous Dan Marvin and his book Expendable Elite! It's just impossible that there aren't former comrades or officers who would confirm anything he says. Didn't he meet anybody in Vientiane for example? No girls? If Lansdale recruited Files for the CIA, why was it financially necessary for him to join the mob additionally, back in the US?

[kenmurray]

According to John Armstrong, someone called the Red Cross and requested that Oswald be granted an emergency leave 2 weeks after he joined the marines! My opinion is that during the whole time Oswald was in the Marine Corps a cover story and training for intelligence work was going on.

[Barney]

I started a new book for me last night, Reasonable Doubt, by Henry Hurt. Looking over the pictures and scan reading varioussections not in order, as I am want to do, I ran onto this section about Oswald leaving the Marines on a family emergency basisto help out his mother, Margurite Oswald, who actually only had a minor health issue, and really didnt need LHO. It states thatLHO may have been secretly killed by the government via the mob, prior to leaving the country for Russia. Thus LHO of NewOrleans never went to Russia, the KGB already had a look a like, waiting in the wings for Oswald to die, then put this guy intotheir subversive terrorism program where he recd. all kinds of training from his first day in Moscow and Minsk. According tothis tome, there is a quite large KGB training center very close to Minsk, some 500 miles away from Moscow.Numerous people noted the physical and emotional changes in LHO, including his mother and brother, Robert Oswald. He wasshorter by about 2 inches, lots of frontal hair receding loss,he was slenderer, he had no three inch mastoid scar behind his left ear, nor on return from Russia did he have alleged suicide slash marks on his arm. I have never seen Oswald with slash marks, Judyth may know of this.If his arm had a knife slash mark where he allegedly attempted suicide in his hotel room bathtub, but was saved by his SovietInTourist guide and interpreter. Allegedly, LHO sailed on the NO cargo ship the Marion Lykes, for Europe and was one of only4 passengers beside the regular ships crew. How did a newbie traveler know to transit to Helsinki, Sweden then to Moscow by railrather than some other means of travel and route. Where did he get the money to make this journey, or to remain in Russia.

[Davyjones]

Surely Oswald2s mother and brother would have been certain that he was an imposter?