Both my tours were in the Delta (IV Corps) where the only ground troops were regular ARVNs and RUFF/PUFFS. Like you, I carried a PRC-25 for about 5 months and never got hit. His body was torn to pieces. Me, a vehicle mechanic with Btry E, 41st Arty Quads 1970. Some 23% of Vietnam vets had fathers with professional, managerial The fact that PDoggbiker cant find any decent calculation/explanation, tells us a lot. In Vietnam he cut the hair of everyone in his company for free. Veteran Owned Since 1986. Comments were more interesting than the article it self. We do have infantry (why do you think we have that MOS? This article appeared in the October 2021 issue of Vietnam magazine. Surrounded by an enemy battalion, our hopelessly outnumbered platoon waged a desperate battle for survival. The dead were placed on ponchos. Welcome home brothers and sisters. Ive always considered myself damn lucky to make it out alive. When I was assigned to the M60 in advanced individual training, I decided that if I had to be a gunner I would learn everything there was to know about the weapon. Welcome home!! I had yet to fire a shot with No. Nothing could be further from the truth. LUCK pure LUCK. I am proud to have fought alongside of them. Now, the wisdom of this soldier tough but humanly compassionate warrior ethos can be assessed through the 2d Bn recordNO complaints about mistreatment of prisonerswhile achieving the most combat SUCCESSES IN THE BRIGADE. Units would send a thorough report of their KIA and WIA, battle action coordinates, estimated enemy troop strength, enemy unit KIA/captured and any known direction heading. Spent my year in a Recon platoon 2/35th 4th ID. happened. In the 1st Cav medics were right behind the rto making them a very easy find also. Well he didnt make it. When Roeski got hit, I took over the M-60. At age 55, World War 2 Veterans Nobody attacked, where we were. Our home base was Quang Tri fire Base, But I spent about 6 months out at Mai Loc with the rig. 4 Bill May and Spc. Answer (1 of 12): It heavily depends. These records were transferred into the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration in 2008. In that time 4 us kia and 4 wounded. So do us all a favor and please learn to be tolerant, intelligent, and active. I was an RTO for 9-1/2 months for Hawk Recon 2/327 101AB from dec, 1969 to sept 70. Corrections and confirmations to this errored index resulted in the addition of 358 U.S. military personnel confirmed to have served in Vietnam but not originally listed by the Department of Defense (All names are currently on file and accessible 24/7/365). NFS. You seen the enemy you shots him and vice versa. Two of my classmates were killed within 2 weeks incountry and three wounded I know of. 1 Gun used to kill Americans? I got shot on a mission with 45 days left. I never even got a shot off. What the hell did you hit him with? one of our men shouted. . And us the living that served, who suffer from PTSD ,that figure or percent-aged would be about the greatest of all. I was told to show the new guy how to use it properly. 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. 4 Paul Domke, who carried extra belts of ammo and fed them into the gun. This was another example in the Vietnam War of an inaccuracy becoming the perceived truth. From a military standpoint, it was almost an unprecedented performance. RIP KOOKIE forever young, Thank god you are still alive, I am age 77. Its just (bad) luck, fate, randomness theres no right or wrong, no justice or fairness, no reasoning. 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. Hack volunteered for service in Vietnam in 1968, joining the 1st Infantry Division. I was an M-60 machine gunner for a battalion recon platoon in 1967, for the First Infantry Division, Known as The Black Scarf Battalion. 1 Gun, as always, thumped out a throaty roar as I fought desperately to push the enemy back. never happened,we lost two sweep team members and some So I guess i lasted longer than I was supposed to. US Wings is a veteran-owned business and an official supplier to the US Military. How old are Vietnam vets now? I was constantly untangling the barrel and bipod of the gun from grasping vines and branches. What was the average life expectancy of a soldier in World War II? I was on a radar crew and we were told that, during war time, we would most likely be killed within minutes. 58,148 were killed in Vietnam, 75,000 severely disabled, 23,214 were 100% disabled, 5,283 lost limbs and 1,081 sustained multiple amputations. A Marine on patrol crosses a rice paddy in Vietnam holding an M60 machine gun in 1966. If the enemy was near, we never saw any. Still, militarily, the Tet Offensive was a total defeat of the Communist forces on all fronts. 1 Gun before my luck ran out. The fall of Saigon happened 30 April 1975, two years AFTER the American military left Vietnam. How many draftees died in Vietnam? - 2023 The Indonesians threw the Soviets out in 1966 because of Americas commitment in Vietnam. 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. Sometimes on Family Guy when there about to take someones heart out they say, calimar or maybe its spelled different. If youre a foreigner, I respect what you think, but make sure you read ALL your facts, and dont come to rash conclusion until you know everything from BOTH sides. I wasnt sure if the VC had moved to right or left, so I sprayed the elephant grass in both directions. If you ask people who live in these countries that won the war in Vietnam, they have a different opinion from the American news media. Totally bogus. The 4th Platoons single machine gun crewthe platoon had entered the fight short a gunhad been killed in the fighting, and I was to be moved there. An interesting essay, even more interesting are the comments. He also worked on Jacqueline Kennedys hair pieces and wigs. In my tour everyone had the same chance of getting shot. Then I dropped back down in the streambed to organize our ammo. I know the scouts in my company had a slightly longer rate but not much. 76% of the men sent to Vietnam were from lower middle/working class backgrounds. While traveling through the boonies the first few men were usually always shot first. Approximately 70% of those killed in Vietnam were volunteers. Of those killed, 61% were younger than 21 years old. In Service to My Men | Article | The United States Army 11,465 of those killed were younger than 20 years old. Database. I for one commend you for your courage and thank you for your service to your country. located on the South End of, the Post. 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. Soldier Life Expectancy in Ukraine 'Meat Grinder' Is 4 Hours: Marine All of the next day, we could see SMOKE from the fire caused by the explosions of the AMMO at, the AMMO DUMP. Cause-specific . Vietnam Veterans were the best educated forces our nation had ever sent into combat. DeLong had only fired the weapon once in training, so I let him fire off a few rounds to practice. 1 Gun had registered its first kill. 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. We were in2dBn 503d . Gotta say I think you hit it on the nose. I applaud the courage and difficult and all so dangerous job of Roger Herforth when he served as an RTO for the Hawk Recon Platoon of the 101st airborne division in Vietnam.. The Bn & Company I was assigned to, was on the last row of Bldgs. I also earned a Combat Infantryman Badge, signifying that I had been actively engaged in combat. David H. McNerney, who assumed command of the company when all of its officers were killed or wounded, was presented with the Medal of Honor in a White House ceremony in September 1968. 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 worried about that kind of leadership style in the highlands. 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. The battalion was sending us to a village with a small river running through it. If my memory is correct, only the 1st Cab flew wiith doorgunners. Seattle, Washington(WA), 98106. 9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the official Vietnam era from August 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975. Over the next two months, we exchanged fire with groups of the NVA. Two rounds smashed into a log inches above my head. 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. My assistant gunner and my ammo bearer also carried 300 rounds each. What were the life expectancies of soldiers during the VietnamWar? Ernest, Im glad that your first tour with the VN airborne was rewarding. 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. PDF Sobering Statistics Concerning Vietnam Vets As of April 2016 We ambushed and got ambushed, firebase got attacked who carried what or did what had no bearing. They were glad to see me as it had been a while for replacements with the unit. The Kb of pyridine, C5H5N, is 1.5 x 10-9. Thanks for posting! The machine guns were numbered within each platoon. 1 Gun kept a lot of enemy heads down. If youre American (which you probably are), I could give a f***. I may not have hit anyone that day, but I am certain that No. The incredibly important role in the U.S. Army is responsible for defending the country through real-life combat. Shermans had fairly thin armor (76mm at the thickest compared to a Tiger with 180mm at the thickest with most around 100mm). Also, it has been incorrectly reported that two of Kim Phucs brothers were killed in this incident. Fact: Servicemen who went to Vietnam from well-to-do areas had a slightly elevated risk of dying because they were more likely to be pilots or infantry officers. Day in the life of a Vietnam Soldier | History 118: US History Since 1877 After about 30 minutes, the four enemy soldiers got up and left the area. I had a 20% death rate in my Hospital Corpsman Class. I won a few times, and even when I did not I benefited from handling the gun under stress. No. Many were killed or wounded ! We were about 700 yards east of Company A when it was ambushed by an NVA battalion. _____ 1. Some Brothers said why spend another year in this hellhole???? Both served in A 2/18 1st Infantry Division For some reason, the written word of this article was somehow deleted and lost. Life expectancy at birth. said to me. The smell of those charred bodies, blackened and smoking from the napalm strike, is something I can never forget. Even the AP photographer, Nick Ut, who took the picture, was Vietnamese. From 1957 to 1973, the National Liberation Front assassinated 36,725 Vietnamese and abducted another 58,499. estimated education differentials in life expectancy for Veterans in 2011-14 are close to those of U. S. population in 1979-89. hmK#1+yNvA Bravo, 3/187th Inf, 101st Airborne Div, 2nd Plt, 2nd Sq, Hamburger Hill, May 69. Then we learned, appx: 1 mile to our North was, an American AMMO storage area. Thank You Roger!!! Certainly got my attention. We used to provide cover for these guys. 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.. 58,148 were killed and 304,000 wounded out of 2.7 million who served. Two points: 1) at least in Army units, Medevacs (dust offs) flew unarmed aircraft. He said fighting was especially deadly in the war-torn city of Bakhmut, dubbed "the meat . Average age of men killed: 23.1 years Total Deaths: 23.11 years Enlisted: 50,274; 22.37 years Officers: 6,598; 28.43 years Warrants: 1,276; 24.73 years E1: 525; 20.34 years Five men killed in Vietnam were only 16 years old. Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics One afternoon, while Company B was still in the Tuy Hoa area, we received orders to gather up our gear and get ready to board choppers for an assault into a hot landing zone. The body felt as though it weighed considerably more than it looked.
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