Helicopters, F4 fighters. He was killed in an ambush along with three others. (LogOut/ 4 Bill May and Spc. Some gave all. Forget the statistics, we all had a job to do, we went where we were told. Bruce Grandstaff and my best friend, Sgt. I was one of the lucky ones I came home without a physical scratch. How many draftees died in Vietnam? - 2023 Needless too say I depended on Sgt. 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. Good article. US Wings is a veteran-owned business and an official supplier to the US Military. We were about 700 yards east of Company A when it was ambushed by an NVA battalion. Do the math. The U.S. Infantryman Vietnam Pocket Manual contains gems such as infantry "patrol tips," maneuver techniques, and fighting methods for various environments. The answer that we have always been given is that 1 year in the Infantry is equivalent to 3 years of hard labor. I was in the AF a Reo in a F4-C. Who had time to worry about the life 1 Gun and I now faced a new and more formidable foethe North Vietnamese Army. Wortman, another RTO never made it back to The World. Love you Wortman!!!! The NVA had wedged a blocking force between our company and Company A, preventing us from advancing any farther. Five RTOs. 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. 1: physical position (in the field / column) Different jobs have different life expectancy. 4 Answers aaja Come. Fact: 86% of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasians, 12.5% were black, 1.2% were other races. It was the silent power of the pig, I suppose. They were a great bunch. wmy:LsN{/^yzJ] 6.7>n-:FqOa#CW>ia?wt?Xa@ghCd bF)`Schl4*f. We were probably not too far away on that day. 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? When Roeski got hit, I took over the M-60. The helicopter provided unprecedented mobility. Which soldier had the shortest life-expectancy? - Quora Rules may have changed, I was in the Delta region. Some 23% of Vietnam vets had fathers with professional, managerial Suddenly, I heard my name shouted from the Company B command group. 2: role (MOS?). General Westmoreland quoting Douglas Pike (a professor at the University of California, Berkeley), a major military defeat for the VC and NVA. I carried the PRC-25 for most of a year. By the time we reached Vietnam in October 1966 I felt the gun had become a part of me. Then one hot, sunny day, while walking across rice paddies, we suddenly received small-arms fire from Viet Cong in some distant hills. Every mission, I had the same thought. If my memory is correct, only the 1st Cab flew wiith doorgunners. 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. I did worry about the strength of my flax vest. My assistant gunner and my ammo bearer also carried 300 rounds each. No. This was another example in the Vietnam War of an inaccuracy becoming the perceived truth. 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. The average age of the men killed: 23.1 years. Fact: The domino theory was accurate. If it had been up to me, I would have awarded my gun the CIB too. never happened,we lost two sweep team members and some Very Good , I was a radio operator up in I corps in 68 & to me the worst thing was the walking . B)Enter the the Ksp expression forC2D3 in terms of the molar solubility x. Jimmy aaja -M.I.A. He was with the 509th Radio Research Station. When the Company B units that landed on the opposite side of the river got to the bank, some troops reached in and pulled the enemy from the water. Ron. There is no difference in drug usage between Vietnam Veterans and non-Vietnam Veterans of the same age group (Source: Veterans Administration Study). 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? The first thing my platoon sgt. See you in the next life!!!!! Point was the safest place to be,they knew to wait for key elements, RTO, Medica, M60 Gunners. Can I use this word like this: The addressal by the C.E.O. The fact that PDoggbiker cant find any decent calculation/explanation, tells us a lot. I was shot down on my very first mission in July 1968. Both halves quickly swept toward the river to clear the village. https://open.spotify.com/show/5Th7BCpIKDE1hVTqNL3u0Q. I had yet to fire a shot with No. None of the enlisted grades have an average age of less than 20. I remember hearing a Lieutenant (Kennedy) say to one of his two platoon RTOs My RTO is Foxtrot Uniform. Of the . Ive always considered myself damn lucky to make it out alive. Very memorable comments. That was supposed to be 58, 220. but wait, there are more numbers for the same story. Oh, and even the Air Force has ground units. 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. Such as in the song Jimmy by M.I.A look at aaja in the dictionary My indian boyfriend told me is meaning come to me, 6 Answers I have never had or heard of that particular brand, but have had several here in Canada, plus a number in the Caribbean and Asia, and there all the same, small cut hot dogs in a can, no need q now please.. Name the major nerves that serve the following body areas:? Nevertheless, I swung No. The income differentials in life expectancy for Veterans in 2011-14, however, are estimated to be smaller. A Marine on patrol crosses a rice paddy in Vietnam holding an M60 machine gun in 1966. It had a crew of 4 (forward gunner, the coxswain (steering and driving) and the two aft gunners. The average age of the 58,148 US Servicemembers killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years (CACF) Going backwards (Apr. I had scary thoughts about myself humping the bush as a RTO, I was a real puny guy back then. US Wings recently added to OTEXA's Made in U.S.A. An infantry platoon commander in combat had an average of 6 weeks life expectancy. The last American troops departed in their entirety 29 March 1973. 2 Gun.. 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). (You can unsubscribe anytime), The US Wings website is ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) and WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) compliant and adheres to their standards for accessibility of the internet so people with disabilities can surf the web more easily & efficiently. We did interdictions, blocks and other fun things on the river. I was an Artillery Forward Observer 13F20 E-5 at that time. 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. I was with HHC and 1st Platoon C Company in 70-71. Point, slack and compass. My first tour was as an advisor to the VN Abn. Ever since that fateful day in 1967, I have often wondered what became of my beloved M60. 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. The smell of those charred bodies, blackened and smoking from the napalm strike, is something I can never forget. Opinion | What a Combat Medic Still Carries - The New York Times News media have reported tha an American commander ordered the air strike that burned Kim Phuc.Those are incorrect. I was over there twice serving as a Hospital Corpsman with a marine unit. No. See also: Population In the 1st Cav medics were right behind the rto making them a very easy find also. And yes, please God, bless America. My father was on a lrrp team!65-67never was shot but killed alot.He never really got over it though died in 2012! Death by a Bottle! Approximately 70% of those killed in Vietnam were volunteers. I was never hit by enemy fire even though they had multiple opportunities after that I was an rto for the company commander and I have to say both jobs were not fun. The first man to die in Vietnam was James Davis, in 1961. No. 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. Interesting reading. E)V_5lu[vC3+"vg2L& 67-67 11B 4th Id. They were lazy, cowardly and of questionable loyalty, especially the RUFF/PUFFS, and they would steal your under ware if given half a chance. First thing we did was, Set up a complete circular perimeter. July 68 to July 69. Hey Robert I was with the 38th Scout Dog Plt. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. Photo above is of Stanley Kober with RTO, John Scheur. And dug Berms, in the area. 76% of the men sent to Vietnam were from lower middle/working class backgrounds. What was the average life expectancy of a soldier in Vietnam? Answer (1 of 12): It heavily depends. The three of us had trained together at Fort Lewis and were good friends. Company A searched in vain for the platoon in the dark and finally found the shattered unit on the morning of May 19. The Organization of the Viet Cong Units in the South never recovered. 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. I was never formally trained as an RTO. said to me. All that other stuff about seconds and minutes were story tellers, embellishing things to impress some listeners back home. The Vietnam War was the turning point for Communism. One out of every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam was a casualty. In our spare time we did medevacs and medcaps for the local communities and when required inserted SEALs . I just wanted to get off No. In that time 4 us kia and 4 wounded. If you look at all of the things the radio operators were tasked with, it becomes abundantly clear why commo guys weren't expected to last long. 1 Gun was firing. The Vietnamese pilot who dropped the napalm in error is currently living in the United States. Spanish Help The Kb of pyridine, C5H5N, is 1.5 x 10-9. His comparison to a FB was that if we were fired on we returned fire and requested assistance when needed. Was I lucky ? Two of my closest friends in the company, Spc. The Republic of Vietnam lost 1,018 aircraft and helicopters from January 1964 to September 1973. And us the living that served, who suffer from PTSD ,that figure or percent-aged would be about the greatest of all. Our home base was Quang Tri fire Base, But I spent about 6 months out at Mai Loc with the rig. Express your answer in terms of x. The TOTAL number of CIB and CMB awarded would give you the answer !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is not Vietnam where a machine gunner's life expectancy was short because you had an entire army shooting at them. Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics Fact: The American military was not defeated in Vietnam. waving then I realized they Werent shooting at him only at the They were glad to see me as it had been a while for replacements with the unit. A "Sapper" is a combat engineer soldier who is with the front line infantry troops. Without the helicopter it would have taken three times as many troops to secure the 800 mile border with Cambodia and Laos (the politicians thought the Geneva Conventions of 1954 and the Geneva Accords or 1962 would secure the border). That same day, I along with 3/4 others was transported to Long Bhin Post. Staying alive was kinda of important. I've never heard about the life expectancy of 6 weeks (even with a short google search). Tumbling end over end, the canisters exploded in a white-hot fireball. PDF Mortality Rates and Life Expectancy of Veterans - Veterans Affairs Four platoons in a rifle company. All of the next day, we could see SMOKE from the fire caused by the explosions of the AMMO at, the AMMO DUMP. The average man who fought in World War II was 26 years of age. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. They were located, next to us, in/on Long Bhin Post. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_losses_of Although the percent that died is similar to other wars, amputations or crippling wounds were 300 percent higher than in World War II. 58,148 were killed and 304,000 wounded out of 2.7 million who served. The first six or seven months I walked point for our platoon and led many ambushes and green eye patrols. Bravo, 3/187th Inf, 101st Airborne Div, 2nd Plt, 2nd Sq, Hamburger Hill, May 69. How Many Vietnam Veterans Are Still Alive In 2022? - CLJ Sgt. It may not have worked for some other wars, but they were pretty helpful. All the comments and replies are of absolute truth, I was only 18 when I got to Nam ,Im a country boy from NC so here I am They also struggled with logistical problems and the complex political situation in Vietnam. Then I dropped back down in the streambed to organize our ammo. But, once the enemy lays down his weapon, I want YOU TO REMEMBER THREE THINGS: 1, HE IS A SOLDIER, JUST LIKE YOU.2, HE IS AWAY FROM HOME And family, just like you. Soldier Life Expectancy in Ukraine 'Meat Grinder' Is 4 Hours: Marine BS but ia a way you are correct. estimated education differentials in life expectancy for Veterans in 2011-14 are close to those of U. S. population in 1979-89. It was an honor indeed to serve with some of the finest soldiers I have ever met. In Vietnam, 1 in 400 of the wounded died of their . The rolling fire burned everything to the ground and undoubtedly killed scores of NVA. "And in seizing the firm land at the .