Approximately 70% of those killed in Vietnam were volunteers. The Vietnamese pilot who dropped the napalm in error is currently living in the United States. From a military standpoint, it was almost an unprecedented performance. You were a Great RTO. A much better approach would be/have been: of all the combat-casualties, what was their Not to mention that right now its safer than some cities in the us. Was I lucky ? where can i find red bird vienna sausage? As we were, steadily building up, our area for protection. 2 Gun.. The Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File of the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Extract Files contains records of 58,220 U.S. military fatal casualties of the Vietnam War. I may not have hit anyone that day, but I am certain that No. I was sitting on the ground one day trying to dry out my gear and better configure my ruck when my squad leader came walking over to me and said, Gow, youve got the radio. As he turned and walked away! Its not all written down. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics Never knew they had life expectancy stats. What percentage of Vietnam veterans actually saw combat? said to me. I credit my longetivity to great training at Ft Benning. He also worked on Jacqueline Kennedys hair pieces and wigs. As it was, less than 40 did not need evacuation. 85% of Vietnam Veterans made successful transitions to civilian life. Now we know. Great story!!! When Apache Snow began, I was an RTO, after Airborne, and before the CA on Dong Ap Bia, I became the AG for Roeski. The next morning, the blasting could still be, heard. Please do not send samples. I was a medic on one for two yrs and the only weapon I was issue was a six-shot .38. It doesnt make any sense statistically/mathematically it is impossible. 2 Gun to Ranallo. 87% of Americans hold Vietnam Veterans in high esteem. As a Huey door gunner, when we left the ground on a mission, I always thought that this mission would be my last! As the entire platoon hit the ground, I saw guys crawling back toward me. The Bronze Star was awarded to ALL that were awarded the CIB in WWII because the Infantry accounted for over 70% of the casualties in WWLL BUT NOT 70% )F ALL THE INFANTRY !!! I was constantly untangling the barrel and bipod of the gun from grasping vines and branches. The first thing my platoon sgt. Oh, and even the Air Force has ground units. Over the next two months, we exchanged fire with groups of the NVA. Even the AP photographer, Nick Ut, who took the picture, was Vietnamese. Of the eight who remained, seven were wounded. No trees or anything on the ground. I saw killed and wounded everywhere in our combat operations. Sure but so was everyone else who went 12 months without getting killed or wounded. Army Infantrymen (11B) are the main land combat force, and known as "Eleven Bravo.". They also had a 12 gauge, and a M 79 grenade launcher and M 16. Very Good , I was a radio operator up in I corps in 68 & to me the worst thing was the walking . Knowing I had a 100-round belt in my M60, I opened up on that hillside, my gun getting so hot that the barrel smoked. Both were infantry in WW2. Originally I went to the 543d TC. I kept the radio because I understood the power of having the first communication with the support mechanisms of the military. 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). Anxiously extending the bipod legs on the M60, I added a 100-round belt to the one I already had in the gun. For his actions, he was awarded the Congressional Medal if Honor. %%EOF Hack volunteered for service in Vietnam in 1968, joining the 1st Infantry Division. of what was usually 5 or 6 going in and many times the leads would find traps, punji pits or the VC waiting. Point was the safest place to be,they knew to wait for key elements, RTO, Medica, M60 Gunners. It called for release of all U.S. prisoners, withdrawal of U.S. forces, limitation of both sides forces inside South Vietnam and a commitment to peaceful reunification. Supported by a shoulder strap, No. Now, to calmly answer your question, air strikes have actually been an efficient technique used by us for years now. The first six or seven months I walked point for our platoon and led many ambushes and green eye patrols. A soldier or Marine in Vietnam had a 98% chance of survival if he was evacuated within the first hour of being injured the best odds in the history of American warfare up to that time. As of April 14, 2017, there are 1,611 Americans still unaccounted for from the Vietnam War across Vietnam (1,258), Laos(297), Cambodia(49), and China(7). One was holding a carbine. Tony told me that either he or I would greet all incoming troops and we did- and here is the speech we gave to them. That same day, I along with 3/4 others was transported to Long Bhin Post. .. I was told my life expectancy was about 45 secs during a fire fight because of the weapons and demo I carried. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. Your email address will not be published. How Many Vietnam War Veterans Are Still Alive? 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. Information presented by SFC (Ret) David Hack. The average life expectancy of a front-line soldier in eastern Ukraine is four hours, a Marine said. Sure, its softer than it was before, but the training they go through is intense, something a loser who spends his time on the computer all day attacking people he doesnt know anything about and all the facts CANNOT do. Different type units, different locations, different opinions on dangers. When I popped back up to put out some automatic fire, a bullet whizzed by my earno more than an inch from my headand slammed into the tree next to me, shattering the bark. maybe your question i vauge. I was shot down on my very first mission in July 1968. In fact, after the 5-year post-service period, the rate of suicides is less in the Vietnam veterans group. well i have been army infantry for 12 years with 2 deployments, and still going strong. An Rtos job was essential, tough,(Carrying the extra weight of the radio transmitter along with his rucksack), and dangerous. 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. 1 Gun. The CACF is the basis for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (The Wall): Average age of 58,148 killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years. ), special forces, combat support, engineering, medics, and vehicle assault weapons. We had been carrying machine guns for over seven months. If you were an administrative officer or clerk in an air-conditioned trailer in Saigon, your war might be a lot like peacetime duty. 67-67 11B 4th Id. I carried the PRC-25 Radio most of that time. 99% of infantry men will currently live to die of natural causes. I assisted Vessey and Capt Cartwright by helping prepare the Bee Hive Rounds (first time they were ever used), firing 4 rounds at proximity 0 range into a human wave attack on or weak side after 5 hours of relentless attacks on the opposite side of the perimeter Those 4 rounds killed @ 400 enemy soldiers, of the 881 total enemy losss John Vessey later became a 4 Star general and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs appointed by Reagan 1983, and at retirement became Chair of the POW MIA Commission for 14 years, Passing away in August 2016 just 6 months before our 50th Reunion. A battery of big 155 mm howitzers blasted the tiny platoon perimeter, tearing trees out of the ground and hurling chunks of red-hot shell splinters through the air. US Wings provides aviation apparel to the U.S. Government and commercial customers along with the general public. The average age of the 58,148 killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years (Although 58,169 names are in the Nov. 93 database, only 58,148 have both event date and birth date. Postservice Mortality in Vietnam Veterans : 30-Year Follow-up - JAMA Two rounds smashed into a log inches above my head. They have a lower unemployment rate than the same non-vet age groups. If it had been up to me, I would have awarded my gun the CIB too. As an infantry platoon Sgt of a platoon made up of all draftees my age 21 plus or minus a year We fought the largest single one day battle of the war March 21, 1967 known as the Battle of Soui Tre, fire support base Gold operation Junction City, that base was commanded by LtCol John Vessey of the 2/77 FA Vessey was a 25 year veteran of WWII fame with a DSC at Anzio, and on this day he was looking at the end of his career after that tour in Vietnam. His best friend is 86 and still alive. Some were constantly exposed to combat, some not so often. It may not have worked for some other wars, but they were pretty helpful. In our spare time we did medevacs and medcaps for the local communities and when required inserted SEALs . I had been shot in the back early in the battle and was lying behind a log with two other soldiers. Total fantasy. They were glad to see me as it had been a while for replacements with the unit. We ambushed and got ambushed, firebase got attacked who carried what or did what had no bearing. The early days of May 1970, I arrived at the Airport, next to Saigon. Company B had seven dead, Grandstaff announced, and I was to take No. Explore the Life of a U.S. Infantryman in Vietnam. What was the life expectency of a private soldier in vietnam? Some Brothers said why spend another year in this hellhole???? I was wasting ammo and didnt even have a target! It was very nearly my last. Of those killed, 61% were younger than 21 years old. This is not Vietnam where a machine gunner's life expectancy was short because you had an entire army shooting at them. Though I flew only about 1/2 dozen missions as a Huey door gunner, I was initially told to sit on my flak jacket I always did so (personal protection first). I was an Artillery Forward Observer 13F20 E-5 at that time. 2 Gun team, Ranallo and May, without any support. Was No. I look over to As a point of reference, Patterson explained that combat troops in World War II, on average, spent 36 days in a combat environment; the average infantryman in Vietnam spent 245 days in constant. 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 . Startled, I quickly pointed my M60 at them. See my calculation below in the comments bogus indeed. On Sun, Mar 8, 2020 at 4:00 PM CherriesWriter Vietnam War website wrote: > pdoggbiker posted: A friend recently sent me the link to an article > claiming that the life expectancy of a radio operator in the Vietnam War > was only 5 seconds. Anyway I was wondering about the RTOs in a grunt platoon, was that their MOS or were they 11B that carried a PRC ? I was one of the many others I rode river boats in the Mekong Jan 68 to 69. If youre American (which you probably are), I could give a f***. 1 Gun and I now faced a new and more formidable foethe North Vietnamese Army. BUT WE MUST ALSO BE COGNIZANT OF OUR REQUIREMENT TO BE COMPASSIONATE HUMAN BEINGS. In Vietnam he cut the hair of everyone in his company for free. Nicknamed "the pig" due to its size, weight and sound, the gun struck fear into enemy troops. They were Kims cousins not her brothers. The fact that PDoggbiker cant find any decent calculation/explanation, tells us a lot. Ordered to reinforce the unit, the Company B commander put our four platoons abreast of each other, and we marched west. 4329 0 obj <>stream Before he was drafted Renza had worked as a hairdresser for women in his hometown of Peekskill, New York. "The Rangers pulled themselves over the top," President Ronald Reagan said of the men, in 1984. The U.S. Infantryman Vietnam Pocket Manual contains gems such as infantry "patrol tips," maneuver techniques, and fighting methods for various environments. Im laying behind a rice paddie dike.I put my whole body as far down in the muck while the bullets were over my head. We were discussing the different units and dangers of each. BS but ia a way you are correct. Does this mean addressing to a crowd? I think the number of Army and Hospital Corpsmen serving with the Marine Corp was very high, with the ratio of the number of them over there. I just wanted to get off No. At Fort Lewis, every recruit learned to operate various weapons. Done ranting. Work Plz. 4322 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[<4E412331B845E54EBDFDC79FA0627A18>]/Index[4314 16]/Info 4313 0 R/Length 65/Prev 560501/Root 4315 0 R/Size 4330/Type/XRef/W[1 3 1]>>stream It resulted in the death of some 45,000 NVA troops and the complete, if not total destruction of the Viet Cong elements in South Vietnam. It was just part of the job. 4 Paul Domke, who carried extra belts of ammo and fed them into the gun. Shortly before 11 a.m. on May 18, the point squad in Company Bs 2nd Platoon spotted three NVA soldiers walking on a trail near the Cambodian border and attempted to capture them, but the NVA dashed off into the jungle. 101st Airborne Division. They run into the fire to help the wounded and many get wounded or killed. I was an O5C-20 in Vietnam. A dense mass of elephant grass hung over the riverbank, and he ducked under it. General Vo Nguyen Giap, the designer of the Tet Offensive, is considered by some as ranking with Wellington, Grant, Lee and MacArthur as a great commander. I pumped 200 rounds into that riverbank. When Roeski got hit, I took over the M-60. Tumbling end over end, the canisters exploded in a white-hot fireball. See also: Population Suddenly I realized that my platoon sergeant was screaming at me to stop firing. After about 30 minutes, the four enemy soldiers got up and left the area. I saw aircraft loaded with troops explode in mid-air. How many draftees died in Vietnam? - 2023 2023 CherriesWriter - Vietnam War website, RTO, John Scheur. Ever since that fateful day in 1967, I have often wondered what became of my beloved M60. However, it was the discretion of the individual crewmen if they wanted to carry personal weapons or not. Most war stories are about soldiers and battles. three, he believes he is doing what his country wants him to dojust like you So you better damn well treat him with the compassion you want for you!! All that other stuff about seconds and minutes were story tellers, embellishing things to impress some listeners back home. 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). Rules may have changed, I was in the Delta region. His body was torn to pieces. Of the . They were lazy, cowardly and of questionable loyalty, especially the RUFF/PUFFS, and they would steal your under ware if given half a chance. It didnt matter who you were or where you were. 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. From 1957 to 1973, the National Liberation Front assassinated 36,725 Vietnamese and abducted another 58,499. In the last 5 years the symptoms of PTSD and AO are starting getting worse in me. One of them gazed in our direction, lowered his AK 47 assault rifle and fired six shots. Michael Doolittle..I was with 1/8 inf, 1st Brigade, and that day, March 22nd was also our darkest day. An interesting essay, even more interesting are the comments. Was the 7th Infantry in Vietnam? - 2023 The Army suffered the most total casualties, 38,179 or 2.7 percent of its force. _____ 1. The Statistics in the Combat Area Casualty File (CACF 11/93) show an average age of death much higher than that of news reports. General Westmoreland quoting Douglas Pike (a professor at the University of California, Berkeley), a major military defeat for the VC and NVA. (tirotactico.net). (LogOut/ My assistant gunner and my ammo bearer also carried 300 rounds each. I was also told that the Radio did put a target on my back. And dug Berms, in the area. In my humble opiniona maneven leaders should often recalculate their adversaries capabilities and limitations and his own limitations as wellwhen 10,000 miles from home against a determined worthy foein a strange landThe objective of Lam Son 719? Thats what I figured but didnt know for sure. Keep in step with US Wings Join our newsletter to receive all our latest news and offers, Example: Yes, I would like to receive emails from US Wings. If my memory is correct, only the 1st Cab flew wiith doorgunners. As soon as he did, a round hit him in the forehead, blowing out the back of his skull. These records were transferred into the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration in 2008. In Service to My Men | Article | The United States Army I've never heard about the life expectancy of 6 weeks (even with a short google search). The last American troops departed in their entirety 29 March 1973. So do us all a favor and please learn to be tolerant, intelligent, and active. Videos, Film, Music, and Movies about VN War, Author interview War & Life: Discussions with a Veteran, A Chat Between Three Veterans [live video with author], Lest We Forget Meet the Authors & Book Signing April 4th: Cherries and Donut Dolly, Interview with author John Podlaski in Examiner Magazine, American Heroes Radio interviews author of Cherries A Vietnam War Novel, Cherries Author Interviewed on British Website, U.K. Blogspot posts interviews author, John Podlaski, More Book Reviews and author interviews about Cherries, Les Scates, U.S. Army (Ret.) 1 gun! Everyone laughed. I think convoy truck drivers had one of the most dangerous job. Bruce Grandstaff and my best friend, Sgt. A former expert with the M60 machine gun shares his experiences wielding the fearsome weapon in Vietnam. Look for the blue accessibility symbol floating on every page of our website and click on it to tailor your viewing experience to your particular disability. Vietnam Veterans were the best educated forces our nation had ever sent into combat. Vietnam War soldiers endured many hardships and faced many problems. THE MAN I INHERITED THE GUN FROM WASNT SO LUCKY. Both served in A 2/18 1st Infantry Division For some reason, the written word of this article was somehow deleted and lost. Enemy fire greeted as us as soon as we landed near the village. The 140,000 evacuees in April 1975 during the fall of Saigon consisted almost entirely of civilians and Vietnamese military, NOT American military running for their lives. I have a fried Who is killed in Vietnam six months before I got there cause of death was other how would I find out since his parents are long gone, Do a search for his name n Coffeltdatabase.org, Sir, would you mind me translating this into Spanish and getting it posted in our blog? 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. We took fire all the time and responded. I am 81 now and survived the encounter by terminated the sniper. Address: 561 E Hines Hill Road Hudson, Ohio 44236 Phone: 1-800-650-0659 / 330-655-5050 Fax: 330-653-3750 Email: [emailprotected], Retail Store Hours: Monday-Friday: 9am - 5pm EST Saturdays: 10am -3pm (Oct-Jan) Sundays: Closed. I was an RTO for 9-1/2 months for Hawk Recon 2/327 101AB from dec, 1969 to sept 70. I was an Artillery Forward Observer with the Infantry. 1 Gun kept a lot of enemy heads down. By this census, FOUR OUT OF FIVE WHO CLAIM TO BE VIETNAM VETS ARE NOT. The group found the first man killed and carried him up the hill, placing his body right next to me. Just to show that its hard to get an accurate number, note my typo of 56,220. 1ST MAW 66-68. Also: for years I have read those life-expectancy numbers never really understanding them, but also noting that they wildly vary. I was a helicopter pilot document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. My good friend who was a RTO was killed. Fact: No American had involvement in this incident near Trang Bang that burned Phan Thi Kim Phuc. Moving west down the trail, 4th Platoon exchanged fire with a single NVA soldier, then a handful and finally a group of about 10-15 around noon. 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. After a quick lesson, DeLong became the new owner of 4th Platoons No.1 Gun. Sholly finally agreed and stated that the next time we received replacements I could give one of them my M60. Lived too tell about it. Many were killed or wounded ! Great reading. Yes, I made E4 at graduation, that was considered a NCO then. I was lucky too but VN never left me. Comments were more interesting than the article it self. Soldiers from 2nd Platoon, Company C, 87th Infantry Regiment, walk on patrol north of the Long . Lt lost a finger, same time. This Battle changed his life and his future, had it not been for his actions, every man on this FSB Gold would have died. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. At age 55, World War 2 Veterans Fact: The domino theory was accurate. Correct. In Company A, 22 men had been killedadded to the seven killed in Company B. They used the callsign MEDIVAC and were armed. Vietnam War soldiers In the First Armored Division, now part of the 23rd Infantry Division, commonly known as the Americal Division, combat medics were called into action every day because the fighting was now.
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