Athletics in the military?

[OhioUPhDstudent]

Hello I am currently an international relations PhD student at Ohio University. I am currently researching a topic I hope to make my dissertation topic and I just wanted to see if anyone on here would be will to help me out. I am researching the role of athletics in the U.S. military after WWII. For instance there is a lot of scholarship on how athletics were used during WWI and WWII as a training tool or a way for soldiers to entertain themselves during training as well as a way to get their mind off of fighting while deployed. Some scholarship has even discovered POW baseball games in German camps and some games played between the Japanese and U.S. POW's.

I am curious if any Vietnam veterans can tell me if athletics were utilized in any of these same capacities during the Vietnam War or while in training. What part of the military was in charge of facilitating athletics for soldiers? Was there any athletic competitions while deployed in Vietnam, possibly any with the South Vietnamese or the French during the early years before the Americanization of the war? Or if anyone has any information on where I could go to find these answers or anything related to the role of athletics in the military. I am also interested to know if any veterans are familiar with the International Military Sports Council?

Thank you for time,

Shane

[Bob Bihari]

This may not be the place to look for that kind of information....The 1/50 was a combat unit, usually out in the bush, or doing short stand-downs at our firebase between missions/assignments (LZ Uplift during my time with the unit). Unless we were assigned to base security (we rotated that duty between Companies), we were only there long enough to clean/maintain equipment before we went out to do it again. After humping a few kilometers up & down mountains in 90+% humidity & 90+ degrees with about 60+ Lbs of gear, (during Combat Assaults) we didn't exactly need any more physical activities I remember throwing a football around once or twice when we had the APCs out at the Beach, but that was pretty rare.

Even when we were back at our base-camp, I NEVER saw so much as a pick-up game of football or baseball while I was in-country ( '68).
I'm sure there were lots of sports activities back at the larger base-camps in the rear, but we were otherwise occupied....

You might have better luck checking with rear-echelon units that were assigned to the larger camps, (An-Khe, Long Bihn, Qhi Nhon, Cam Ranh Bay, Vung Tao, etc) and especially the Air Force & Navy bases.

Good Luck....

[OhioUPhDstudent]

Thank you for your post I definitely appreciate it, it actually helps my research to learn unit's who did not encounter any physical activities. Maybe there could be something in my research to demonstrate the differences between units and their experiences in Vietnam and physical activities may be one of those differences.