Some gave all. Forget the statistics, we all had a job to do, we went where we were told. The Marine Corps lost 14,836, or 5 percent . The key may be the word initial since we became more savvy with successive combats and had improved survivability. The average age of the 58,148 US Servicemembers killed in Vietnam was . Either way, thats a lot of soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen, male and female that made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, and there are still people dying as a result of their wounds receiver so very long ago in a place called Vietnam. Needless too say I depended on Sgt. Carried the prc25 for about 7 months. 58,148 were killed and 304,000 wounded out of 2.7 million who served. The incident in the photo took place on the second day of a three day battle between the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) who occupied the village of Trang Bang and the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) who were trying to force the NVA out of the village. Our home base was Quang Tri fire Base, But I spent about 6 months out at Mai Loc with the rig. Some very close calls but I am alive at age 74. Black fatalities amounted to 12 percent of all Americans killed in Southeast Asia, a figure proportional to the number of blacks in the U.S. population at the time and slightly lower than the proportion of blacks in the Army at the close of the war.. Change). El subjuntivo to the empployees was very informative. 15 May he was killed by friendly fire, and a host of us were WIA, myself included. well i have been army infantry for 12 years with 2 deployments, and still going strong. I too never understood survivor quilt, Enjoyed your article. I was still pondering the move to 4th Platoon when U.S. Air Force jets screamed over the treetops with canisters of napalm. At Fort Lewis, every recruit learned to operate various weapons. They also had a 12 gauge, and a M 79 grenade launcher and M 16. An infantry platoon commander in combat had an average of 6 weeks life expectancy. Walked point way to many times but never had contact. We could not see any enemy soldiers, but we could see smoke coming from their weapons through the trees. For example: 7*x^2. I kept the radio because I understood the power of having the first communication with the support mechanisms of the military. I had scary thoughts about myself humping the bush as a RTO, I was a real puny guy back then. They run into the fire to help the wounded and many get wounded or killed. By the time we reached Vietnam in October 1966 I felt the gun had become a part of me. Was Billeted near an Army medevac Unit and was offered a chance to lay on my stomach with an M16 and door gun for them I decided not a good Idea. wmy:LsN{/^yzJ] 6.7>n-:FqOa#CW>ia?wt?Xa@ghCd bF)`Schl4*f. I never even got a shot off. We do have infantry (why do you think we have that MOS? 4329 0 obj <>stream After about 30 minutes, the four enemy soldiers got up and left the area. The early days of May 1970, I arrived at the Airport, next to Saigon. We all die, so its not even worth worrying about when in my opinion, id rather do something that i knew was worth it and risk dieing instead of living in fear of death. I was an Artillery Forward Observer 13F20 E-5 at that time. Ha Ha always enjoyed being a volunteer! happened. located on the South End of, the Post. We were told in training that the life expectancy of a machine gunner was about seven seconds from the moment the first round was fired. Five RTOs. I was in the AF a Reo in a F4-C. Who had time to worry about the life One of them gazed in our direction, lowered his AK 47 assault rifle and fired six shots. This makes our site more accessible to the blind, visually impaired, motor disabled, people with cognitive disabilities and more. The average infantryman in Vietnam saw about 240 days of combat in one year thanks to the mobility of the helicopter. year old Marine thinking this is my last day on earth. The one number that is really important is 56,220 and we all know what that number represents. LUCK pure LUCK. The 4th Platoon survivors stayed put for the night. I never saw any correlation as to what MOS a soldier was and their survival rate. In our spare time we did medevacs and medcaps for the local communities and when required inserted SEALs . The average infantryman in Vietnam saw about 240 days of combat in one year thanks to the mobility of the helicopter. Foot soldiers went by the grace of God, but had a better chance than the infantry platoon commander in combat. THANKS! I put the M60s bipod legs down, lifted the weapon and positioned it on the ground outside the streambed facing the NVA. I picked up my M60 and walked to the center of the perimeter, where I found the company commander, Capt. After every officer in our company was either killed or had serious wounds, our 1st Sgt , David McNerney took over the company and without his leadership, and knowledge of war, and unbelievable courage, our company would probably have been wiped out. Out of the 3,000,000 men and women in our armed forces and reserves, we have lost 4,500 in this 9 year war. I think those numbers are percentages of US KIA, not mortality times. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Address: 9241 13th Ave SW I for one commend you for your courage and thank you for your service to your country. 23,24 This study found that the death rate for Vietnam veterans was 1.3 times that for non-Vietnam veterans; however, the excess deaths were limited to Engineer Corps members (RR, 2.5). Es ridculo que t ______ (tener) un resfriado en verano. The last American troops departed in their entirety 29 March 1973. I look over to Id had a premonition, and asked the LT to let me trade off to become the AG. Much smaller income differentials in life expectancy, 0.2 to 3.6 life-years smaller for Veterans in 2010-17 are estimated. If you have other information let me know. It means, IF (!) The planes doing the bombing near the village were VNAF (Vietnam Air Force) and were being flown by Vietnamese pilots in support of South Vietnamese troops on the ground. 1ST MAW 66-68. Required fields are marked *. The Indonesians threw the Soviets out in 1966 because of Americas commitment in Vietnam. Comments were more interesting than the article it self. The ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand stayed free of Communism because of the U.S. commitment to Vietnam. As some said, averages are meaningless. What unit lost the most soldiers in Vietnam? never happened,we lost two sweep team members and some I applaud your courage as I know an RTOs job is essential, difficult (carrying the weight of his radio transmitter, his rifle, his ammo, and his rucksack), and dangerous as the enemy surely wanted to knock out any communications for support. Posterior Thigh _____ 4. Many were killed or wounded ! Correct. Cruz quite a lot. Thank You Roger!!! On the morning of March 22, 1967, companies A and B of my battalion began a search-and-destroy operation along the Cambodian border. Ive always considered myself damn lucky to make it out alive. A Marine on patrol crosses a rice paddy in Vietnam holding an M60 machine gun in 1966. I was wounded 3 times during the 10 1/2 months I was in-country before being medevacd out in Apr of 68. The battalion was sending us to a village with a small river running through it. For example, life expectancy of male and female Veterans with household incomes less than $20,000, at respectively. TONY DISAGREED> hE SAID TAKE A 19 YEAR OLD, WHO HAS JUST TAKEN TWO ROUNDS TO HIS BODY, And IS watching his best friend die from multiple, bleeding wounds he wont give a shit about the Geneva Convention. Calculate the pH of a solution of 0.157 M pyridine.? 1 gun! Everyone laughed. The Army suffered the most total casualties, 38,179 or 2.7 percent of its force. When we reached Company A, we placed our dead in the center of the two-company perimeter. There were almost twice as many casualties in Southeast Asia (primarily Cambodia) the first two years, after the fall of Saigon in 1975, than there were during the ten years the U.S. was involved in Vietnam. Around 3 p.m., when Grandstaff realized we were about to be overrun, he called in artillery right on top of our location. In total, the United States military lost in Vietnam almost 10,000 aircraft, helicopters and UAVs (3,744 planes, 5,607 helicopters and 578 UAVs). As with much of the Vietnam War, the news media misreported and misinterpreted the 1968 Tet Offensive. I loved it. They were lazy, cowardly and of questionable loyalty, especially the RUFF/PUFFS, and they would steal your under ware if given half a chance. For example, life expectancy of Veterans at age 25 population, thus 3.6 and 0.5 life-years smaller income differentials for male and female Veterans, respectively, shown in Tables 17 and 18. 2) by my research, medics suffered 93% casualties with about 33% deaths. It may not have worked for some other wars, but they were pretty helpful. It didnt matter who you were or where you were. Our chase after the enemy unwittingly led us into a large ambush. The machine guns were numbered within each platoon. Helicopters, F4 fighters. 11,465 of those killed were younger than 20 years old. C Co, 1st-12th 66-67. Great story!!! I do remember when I got short I thought about it a lot more. Sometimes on Family Guy when there about to take someones heart out they say, calimar or maybe its spelled different. That was a hell of a responsibility to take on. Company B had seven dead, Grandstaff announced, and I was to take No. Just published my book The Last Goodbye by John Fratangelo, available on line on Barnes and Noble and Amazon Prime Books, Getting great reviews. Three-fourths had family incomes above the poverty level; 50% were from middle income backgrounds. His best friend is 86 and still alive. 2 tour Nam Vet, The Navys First Vietnamese Admiral Saw His Family Killed by an Infamous Viet CongGuerrilla, The Navy's First Vietnamese Admiral Saw His Family Killed by an Infamous Viet Cong Guerrilla, A Day in the Life of an Infantry Point Man in Vietnam, The Story behind the famous Saigon Execution Photo. That was supposed to be 58, 220. but wait, there are more numbers for the same story. Both my tours were in the Delta (IV Corps) where the only ground troops were regular ARVNs and RUFF/PUFFS. of what was usually 5 or 6 going in and many times the leads would find traps, punji pits or the VC waiting. Explore the Life of a U.S. Infantryman in Vietnam. Each company had eight M60s. Work Plz. I remember we were always short of replacements throughout 1968 because of the high Kia & wounded rate we suffered at that time ! DeLong had only fired the weapon once in training, so I let him fire off a few rounds to practice. Anyway I was wondering about the RTOs in a grunt platoon, was that their MOS or were they 11B that carried a PRC ? So I guess i lasted longer than I was supposed to. Photo above is of Stanley Kober with RTO, John Scheur. hmK#1+yNvA Some Brothers said why spend another year in this hellhole???? Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. My friend May, I later learned, was doing the same thing in 2nd Platoon. He then said that they were generally on patrol moving through their area, both attacking and being attacked depending if the VC knew their location. The fall of Saigon happened 30 April 1975, two years AFTER the American military left Vietnam. The first thing my platoon sgt. What were the life expectancies of soldiers during the Vietnam War? Our Aussie Dust off choppers had door gunners, we worked on the theory if the Noggies would shot at Red Cross choppers, we would return fire, Aussie grunt, 60000 00 Aussies fought in Vietnam, Up the Old Red Rooster and more beer. The Vietnam War gave us trouble because we didnt know how to counteract against guerrilla warfare in a jungle (dont forget that the US Army was switching to M16s, which often jammed). If the enemy was near, we never saw any. He was with the 509th Radio Research Station. 5 Answers There is no word like addressal. approaching a village and a firefight starts). aND, mAY GOD BLESS AMERICA!!! He retired in 2012 and lives in Delray Beach, Florida. Was a door gunner and crew chief for just shy of 18 months (I extended to get out early). There were two different groups that flew aeromedical evacuations. The answer that we have always been given is that 1 year in the Infantry is equivalent to 3 years of hard labor. The Vietnam War was the turning point for Communism. I always found life expectancy numbers interesting in that I could never find any supporting information that could be validated. I was already lugging around a 24-pound weapon, 300 rounds of ammo and a pack that weighed a good 45 pounds. Interesting but something is missing. The one that should be there is the combat medic. If youre American (which you probably are), I could give a f***. To cut the Ho Chi Minh Traila week after the mission endedthe trail was booming with business from the north.. I am 16 years old an 150 pounds qith some good muscle. If there was anything to this life expectancy of a few minutes then myself and many of my friends that are still alive today would be a long time dead. I credit my longetivity to great training at Ft Benning. To keep busy on the boat ride to Vietnam, my unitCompany B, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regimentheld competitions where we took the gun apart and put it back together while blindfolded to see who could do it fastest. None of the enlisted grades have an average age of less than 20. I was told my life expectancy was about 45 secs during a fire fight because of the weapons and demo I carried. At age 55, World War 2 Veterans No. I was a REMF but Ive heard of 05Cs that were stuck out in the boonies on a firebase. The average life expectancy of a Soviet soldier during the height of the battle was just 24 hours. V. Victor Renza was sent home after he was wounded on May 18, 1967. I carried the PRC-25 Radio most of that time. Deltoid muscle _____ 2. However, it was the discretion of the individual crewmen if they wanted to carry personal weapons or not. It was just part of the job. In a strange country scared shitless .I was a minesweeper.My first time out on a mission they put me on the drag line fifty yards from the road which was route 1, Then all hell broke lose I flew Dustoff and our unit did not have M60s for protection, nor did any other Dustoff unit that Im aware of. I would suspect that stating with any accuracy the life span of a grunt like me, or any other MOS, would be pretty much pure speculation. What percentage of Vietnam veterans actually saw combat? He served as a sergeant with the Big Red One in Lai Khe, Vietnam. He said fighting was especially deadly in the war-torn city of Bakhmut, dubbed "the meat . We fought to an agreed stalemate. Well, according to current mortality and morbidity statistics for the USright around 77.5 Years! He also worked on Jacqueline Kennedys hair pieces and wigs. Arthur Parker and Spc. If it was your day to get hit or die, it happened. I was a grunt with c co. 4/31 196th it inf bade. Enter the the Ksp expression forC2D3 in terms of the molar solubility x.? See you in the next life!!!!! Jimmy aaja, jimmy aaja. We observed the rules of the Geneva Convention while the bad guys had no interest in doing so. 2. Soldiers from 2nd Platoon, Company C, 87th Infantry Regiment, walk on patrol north of the Long . https://www.historynet.com/no-1-gun-an-m60-machine-gunner-in-vietnam-tells-his-story/, Jerrie Mock: Record-Breaking American Female Pilot, When 21 Sikh Soldiers Fought the Odds Against 10,000 Pashtun Warriors, Few Red Tails Remain: Tuskegee Airman Dies at 96. Point, slack and compass. As we were, steadily building up, our area for protection. The American military did not lose a battle of any consequence. 1st Cav, 101st, etc. All of the next day, we could see SMOKE from the fire caused by the explosions of the AMMO at, the AMMO DUMP. So I guess I defied the odds. The death squads focused on leaders at the village level and on anyone who improved the lives of the peasants such as medical personnel, social workers, and school teachers. S/F, There were no door gunners on dustoffs. The Australian Vietnam veteran study assessed the postservice mortality of 19 205 Vietnam veterans and 25 677 non-Vietnam veterans through 1981. During this Census count, the number of Americans falsely claiming to have served in-country is: 13,853,027. The peace settlement was signed in Paris on 27 January 1973. From the Landing Zone, we were carried not too far. The group found the first man killed and carried him up the hill, placing his body right next to me. This was another example in the Vietnam War of an inaccuracy becoming the perceived truth. 2/3 of the men who served in World War II were drafted. (tirotactico.net). All that other stuff about seconds and minutes were story tellers, embellishing things to impress some listeners back home. Then one hot, sunny day, while walking across rice paddies, we suddenly received small-arms fire from Viet Cong in some distant hills. Love you Wortman!!!! Vietnam Veterans were the best educated forces our nation had ever sent into combat. Name the major nerves that serve the following body areas? 4 Joey Piambino were to my right in the streambed. Fighters and planes dont make up the Army, thats the Air Force. The average man who fought in World War II was 26 years of age. Also, it has been incorrectly reported that two of Kim Phucs brothers were killed in this incident. I was a helicopter pilot Tumbling end over end, the canisters exploded in a white-hot fireball. I was one of the lucky ones I came home without a physical scratch. A dense mass of elephant grass hung over the riverbank, and he ducked under it. Vietnam Veterans are less likely to be in prison only one-half of one percent of Vietnam Veterans have been jailed for crimes. Hi, the whole thing is going nicely here and ofcourse every one What Was It Like To Hump The Boonies in Vietnam? Sociologists Charles C. Moskos and John Sibley Butler, in their recently published book All That We Can Be, said they analyzed the claim that blacks were used like cannon fodder during Vietnam and can report definitely that this charge is untrue. Hey Robert I was with the 38th Scout Dog Plt. His body was torn to pieces. MEDEVAC helicopters flew nearly 500,000 missions. They used the callsign MEDIVAC and were armed. He was not the type to hump a radio. waving then I realized they Werent shooting at him only at the Bloody May 1968 Mini TET. I saw killed and wounded everywhere in our combat operations. It began just as, it was getting dark. I think convoy truck drivers had one of the most dangerous job. The smell of those charred bodies, blackened and smoking from the napalm strike, is something I can never forget. I personally carried 300 rounds of ammo at all times, one belt in the gun and two across my chest. Amazingly, the NVA men then walked a short distance away, sat down and ate lunch. Ordered to reinforce the unit, the Company B commander put our four platoons abreast of each other, and we marched west. said to me. One out of every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam was a casualty. Hurrying forward with No. Phi Pow B.Sc (econ) in Economic History & Economics (college minor), London School of Economics and Political Science Author has 212 answers and 234.6K answer views 2 y Originally Answered: What soldier had the shortest life expectancy? In Vietnam 70% 0f the casualties were Infantry BUT it might be 70% of ALL the Infantry that served in Vietnam. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. Got hit inside 15 minutes, first ambush we walked up too. I was stationed on 2 FSBs (8 & 175mm guns) west of Tay Ninh on the Cambodian boarder in the Ho Chi Minh trail and was wounded but nothing as bad as he was. As a Huey door gunner, when we left the ground on a mission, I always thought that this mission would be my last! Expenditures for a body in a combat zone? If you would like to get a copy, and cant find it, let me know, and I will make sure you get one. Thank God I made it. Me molesta que mis padres no ______ (cuidar) su alimentacin.. 3. These records were transferred into the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration in 2008. Back home he returned to hairdressing and got a job at Kenneth Salon in New York City working with top models and fashion magazine editors. In your rucksack . Contents 1 Unclear objectives 2 North Vietnamese strategy The fact that PDoggbiker cant find any decent calculation/explanation, tells us a lot. I am proud to have fought alongside of them. I would carry when on ambush. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. Point was the safest place to be,they knew to wait for key elements, RTO, Medica, M60 Gunners. Be glad you served with a soldiers soldier like LTC Herbert. They were glad to see me as it had been a while for replacements with the unit. Papitto Opportunity Connections Mission: The Papitto Opportunity Connection (POC) is a private foundation dedicated to listening and working together with Rhode Islands BIPOC communities to empower and create individual success stories by investing in education, job skills training, and entrepreneurial ventures. 11 c mos , meaning I was also cross trained for mortars . Your Dad and I had the same job. No. I couldnt disagree. Dont know why, but generally, their aircraft were not armed (door gunners, etc.). Thanks. 5 seconds. Me, a vehicle mechanic with Btry E, 41st Arty Quads 1970. I wasnt aware that they kept life expectancy statistics. Bravo, 3/187th Inf, 101st Airborne Div, 2nd Plt, 2nd Sq, Hamburger Hill, May 69. Not to mention that right now its safer than some cities in the us. "The Cotton Balers, damn fine Soldiers." The Battalion returned to Fort Benning on October 11, 1970 and was inactivated. 9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the official Vietnam era from August 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975. DeLong was later killed attempting to escape from a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp in Cambodia. In all that time, the Tet 1968 fighting in Saigon was the only time the unit fought a pitched urban battlevery unusual during the war. I was with HHC and 1st Platoon C Company in 70-71. In Vietnam he cut the hair of everyone in his company for free. Very Good , I was a radio operator up in I corps in 68 & to me the worst thing was the walking . Veteran Owned Since 1986. By this census, FOUR OUT OF FIVE WHO CLAIM TO BE VIETNAM VETS ARE NOT. Fact: Mortality studies show that 9,000 is a better estimate. Our patrols were typically about 14 hours 24/7 We operated of old LSTs and large barges. Fact: 86% of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasians, 12.5% were black, 1.2% were other races. February 5 th, 1967, Galiano was headed to Saigon, Vietnam with 90 fellow Americans on an Air Force c-131, but orders were quickly altered . If it was 1941 and you were an average Soviet soldier, your life expectancy on the front line was days, not weeks, thanks to the ongoing german offence. If anything went wrong, I could easily kill some of our soldiers. For his actions, he was awarded the Congressional Medal if Honor. %PDF-1.5 % Thank You General Vessey for the almost 53 years I have lived since that day. Theres 58,276. The average life expectancy of a front-line soldier in eastern Ukraine is four hours, a Marine said. Staying alive was kinda of important. This is not Vietnam where a machine gunners life expectancy was short because you had an entire army shooting at them. This is hard to believe, losing nearly 711,000 between 95 and 00. There were no Americans involved in any capacity. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. It was more or less next man up . 1 Gun over my shoulder, grabbed a corner of a poncho and stumbled off with three other soldiers. Lt lost a finger, same time. 91% of Vietnam Veterans say they are glad they served. We walked the mountains and rice patties all thru Tu Thien Province. hb```8fB cBLd2>Tb jz1@E; aK6Tmc.Nn"&gn7hj'wm,h d6p4u0`&88:,TMV& y@ b=e>a&^ >{2b`ZHE3psn QZ Lowering my gun, I turned around and noticed two VC sitting in the doorway of the hut, staring at me. While traveling through the boonies the first few men were usually always shot first. I spent 10 1/2 months in the jungles of Vietnam. General Westmoreland quoting Douglas Pike (a professor at the University of California, Berkeley), a major military defeat for the VC and NVA.

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