I asked a boomer south viet expat for their opinion on this, they said "maybe they're playing"
My dad in Vietnam. His first wife whom I know only from Facebook sent me this. I asked him about it and he said they regularly interrogated locals for info. I never knew this side of the man.
Fair enough, I can't say with certainty I wouldn't have accepted the draft at 18 and ended up in this situation; I had a tendency to follow orders a lot more than think for myself at that age, and probably could've ended up in a similar situation, and sadly even military recruiters today prey on kids who don't really grasp what they'll be doing if they join.