life expectancy of an infantry soldier in vietnam

Both served in A 2/18 1st Infantry Division. 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. After about 30 minutes, the four enemy soldiers got up and left the area. 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. Each company had eight M60s. First thing we did was, Set up a complete circular perimeter. 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 . 15 May he was killed by friendly fire, and a host of us were WIA, myself included. Ambulances are not supposed to be armed (either) though in training, medics are told they and their vehicles will be a prime target. Mi hermana se sorprende N-F C-F Cl-F F-F 2 Answers C-F is the most polar. Name the major nerves that serve the following body areas? Fact: The average infantryman in the South Pacific during World War II saw about 40 days of combat in four years. In the 1st Cav medics were right behind the rto making them a very easy find also. It is Honor in the Valley of Tears. The NVA had wedged a blocking force between our company and Company A, preventing us from advancing any farther. Cruz quite a lot. I had yet to fire a shot with No. It was on the Job Training ! Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. I was trained as a RTO in 1970 at Fort Ord then went to Fort Gordon for teletype school, my MOS was 05C20 when I finished. The other group of aeromedical evacuation were divisional, i.e. Much smaller income differentials in life expectancy, 0.2 to 3.6 life-years smaller for Veterans in 2010-17 are estimated. Lucky you. waving then I realized they Werent shooting at him only at the Different jobs have different life expectancy. 5 seconds. Sgt. 2) by my research, medics suffered 93% casualties with about 33% deaths. Thank You for your courageous service as an RTO with the legendary Hawk Recon Platoon. aND, mAY GOD BLESS AMERICA!!! We (Americans) had nothing to do with controlling VNAF, according to Lieutenant General (Ret) James F. Hollingsworth, the Commanding General of TRAC at that time. Gotta say I think you hit it on the nose. 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. This article appeared in the October 2021 issue of Vietnam magazine. Like most inexperienced gunners, he underestimated the power of the pig and failed to keep the barrel down when firing. Hi, the whole thing is going nicely here and ofcourse every one He pulled the company into a perimeter and dispatched 4th Platoon to recon the trail to the west, while 1st Platoon performed a similar mission to the east-southeast. My friend May, I later learned, was doing the same thing in 2nd Platoon. They were held in special regard after the Normandy landings, when 225 Rangers scaled cliffs at Pointe Du Hoc on June 6, 1944 under intense enemy fire. I had to rely on my gun more than before. They kept coming up the hill bringing more bodies to me until all seven had been found. The average infantryman in Vietnam saw about 240 days of combat in one year thanks to the mobility of the helicopter. It was reported as an overwhelming success for the Communist forces and a decided defeat for the U.S. forces. Lived too tell about it. E)V_5lu[vC3+"vg2L& It was a chaotic nightmare. 1 Gun had registered its first kill. Es ridculo que t ______ (tener) un resfriado en verano. 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. I lost my cherry very early. 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. (and yes, you cant ask them, so it would have to be derived from the AA-reports and survivors). located on the South End of, the Post. How old are Vietnam vets now? Completa las oraciones con la forma correcta del presente de subjuntivo de los verbos entre parntesis.? 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. He retired in 2012 and lives in Delray Beach, Florida. Soldiers from 2nd Platoon, Company C, 87th Infantry Regiment, walk on patrol north of the Long . I for one commend you for your courage and thank you for your service to your country. The three of us had trained together at Fort Lewis and were good friends. Cause-specific . Once we turned on the radar they could hit us with a harm missile. I want to know what the life expectancy of a us infantry army soldier is. I was lucky too but VN never left me. PDF Mortality Rates and Life Expectancy of Veterans - Veterans Affairs Soon I could take the gun apart and put it back together in the dark. Totally bogus. Non-divisional aeromedical evacuation units went by the callsign DUSTOFF. (many of the Soviet casualties were POWs, though). Overview - Medics and Corpsmen - Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund 1 Gun became my very best friend. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. I loved it. They also struggled with logistical problems and the complex political situation in Vietnam. We soon learned that the NVA troops were very different from the local guerrillas we had fought around Tuy Hoa. 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. means: 1 gets killed the 1st second, another one after 9 seconds avg. Anyway I was wondering about the RTOs in a grunt platoon, was that their MOS or were they 11B that carried a PRC ? May they rest in peace. 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). They used the callsign MEDIVAC and were armed. The machine gun was also mounted in the UH-1 Huey helicopter and other Army aircraft. No combat assignments for another year of service in Vietnam or get out in about a month. I was a point man, M60 Gunner and squad leader. The average life expectancy of a front-line soldier in eastern Ukraine is four hours, a Marine said. For some reason, the written word of this article was somehow deleted and lost. 91% of Vietnam Veterans say they are glad they served. I was a 2LT on Hamburger Hill and had 4 RTOs over a 7 day period (excluding the times I ended up carrying my own radio). We were very, lucky. 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. 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. wmy:LsN{/^yzJ] 6.7>n-:FqOa#CW>ia?wt?Xa@ghCd bF)`Schl4*f. This makes calculations of those alive, even in 2017, difficult to maintain. Event date is used instead of declared dead date for some of those who were listed as missing in action). However, it was the discretion of the individual crewmen if they wanted to carry personal weapons or not. Ha Ha always enjoyed being a volunteer! As we were, steadily building up, our area for protection. In fact, after the 5-year post-service period, the rate of suicides is less in the Vietnam veterans group. Vietnam War soldiers endured many hardships and faced many problems. We do have infantry (why do you think we have that MOS? For example, life expectancy of male and female Veterans with household incomes less than $20,000, at respectively. 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. I look over to DeLong was later killed attempting to escape from a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp in Cambodia. In an instant the jungle erupted in gunfire. When Apache Snow began, I was an RTO, after Airborne, and before the CA on Dong Ap Bia, I became the AG for Roeski. Carried the prc25 for about 7 months. This is hard to believe, losing nearly 711,000 between 95 and 00. Fact: The American military was not defeated in Vietnam. Military history of African Americans in the Vietnam War I couldnt see DeLong and didnt know if No. Vietnam War the helicopters that came in to transport soldiers were the hardest hit with mass casualties . None of the enlisted grades have an average age of less than 20. Also, it has been incorrectly reported that two of Kim Phucs brothers were killed in this incident. Army Infantrymen (11B) are the main land combat force, and known as "Eleven Bravo.". Also, it would mean the killed RTOs died within seconds of the fight (it doesnt distinguish between ambush or regular fight, eg. I was already lugging around a 24-pound weapon, 300 rounds of ammo and a pack that weighed a good 45 pounds. This is not Vietnam where a machine gunners life expectancy was short because you had an entire army shooting at them. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. That means you lose five RTOs in 5 seconds. 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). Yes, I made E4 at graduation, that was considered a NCO then. The fall of Saigon happened 30 April 1975, two years AFTER the American military left Vietnam. How many draftees died in Vietnam? - 2023 Activated in 1915, as the 173rd Infantry Brigade, the unit saw service in World War II but is best known for its actions during the Vietnam War. You just do the best job you can and if you got hit, so be it! Radiomen in the Vietnam War faced a 5-second life expectancy Vietnam Veterans are less likely to be in prison only one-half of one percent of Vietnam Veterans have been jailed for crimes. First Sgt. C Co, 1st-12th 66-67. If you were an administrative officer or clerk in an air-conditioned trailer in Saigon, your war might be a lot like peacetime duty. The first man to die in Vietnam was James Davis, in 1961. 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 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). They were lazy, cowardly and of questionable loyalty, especially the RUFF/PUFFS, and they would steal your under ware if given half a chance. Some Brothers said why spend another year in this hellhole???? So I guess I defied the odds. 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. I was with HHC and 1st Platoon C Company in 70-71. Not long after the artillery barrage ended, the North Vietnamese swept through 4th Platoon and executed some of the survivors. Very Good , I was a radio operator up in I corps in 68 & to me the worst thing was the walking . LUCK pure LUCK. As a Huey door gunner, when we left the ground on a mission, I always thought that this mission would be my last! If the NVA shot at the group retrieving the bodies, I was to fire over the heads of the grunts and engage the enemy. 2 Gun.. He was killed in an ambush along with three others. Army Infantryman (MOS 11B): 2022 Career Profile - Operation Military Kids Express your answer in terms of x. I packed my own radio and got a Thank you from his Mom. We ambushed and got ambushed, firebase got attacked who carried what or did what had no bearing. One was holding a carbine. I saw killed and wounded everywhere in our combat operations. HOOAH!!! As I made it back to the road I remember seeing the It was just part of the job. I was over there twice serving as a Hospital Corpsman with a marine unit. I think what is missing is the fact that the life expectancy of those firing at us was much shorter than those that they were firing at. 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. Was the 7th Infantry in Vietnam? - 2023 Fortunately, it was recorded on Spotify and can be listened to here: Thank you for both articles: (1)Going up river to port and (2) the flight from Italy back to Nam. As we approached the battle, we heard intense firing. Sept 69 to Sept 70. The article was interesting. Both were infantry in WW2. 11 c mos , meaning I was also cross trained for mortars . endstream endobj 4315 0 obj <>/Metadata 89 0 R/Pages 4312 0 R/StructTreeRoot 120 0 R/Type/Catalog>> endobj 4316 0 obj <>/MediaBox[0 0 612 792]/Parent 4312 0 R/Resources<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI]/XObject<>>>/Rotate 0/StructParents 0/Tabs/S/Type/Page>> endobj 4317 0 obj <>stream By this census, FOUR OUT OF FIVE WHO CLAIM TO BE VIETNAM VETS ARE NOT. Fighters and planes dont make up the Army, thats the Air Force. You of course had the radio plus xtra batteries & handsets plus your rucksack with 7 to 8 canteens , 20 mags ( I used to carry 17 rounds in the mags instead of 20 ) because the springs would force the round into the chamber causing jams . Were talking averages, obviously so, an RTO, with an expectancy of 5 seconds (!) Needless too say I depended on Sgt. 75,000 Vietnam veterans are severely disabled. The man with the carbine immediately dropped it, and the two VC surrendered. 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. Was a door gunner and crew chief for just shy of 18 months (I extended to get out early). I personally believe and agree with previous posts that when its your time, not much you can do. From Cam Rahn, we kept flying north to, a Landing Zone near QUANG TRI. !We dont abuse prisoners Now, if he reaches for his weapon to continue the fight BLOW HIS ASS AWAY THIS AINT SUNDAY SCHOOL!!! The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. 8h%5HF8r,X'q#Vtgz%)P/Oi#rU(uO&*Xx1t^=xVLi What Is The Average Life Expectancy Of A Vietnam Veteran? 4 Answers aaja Come. The Indonesians threw the Soviets out in 1966 because of Americas commitment in Vietnam. 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. 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. .. But it was my jobso I tried not to think about it much. At that time, an infantry company consisted of about 150 men. This is not Vietnam where a machine gunner's life expectancy was short because you had an entire army shooting at them. 1 Gun and I now faced a new and more formidable foethe North Vietnamese Army. then youd carry an extra 200 rounds of M60 ammo for the machine gunner , plus drag grenades , one smoke grenade plus etc. Five RTOs. I think those numbers are percentages of US KIA, not mortality times. Comments were more interesting than the article it self. Welcome home brothers and sisters. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. We were expecting, an attack. The average age of the 58,148 US Servicemembers killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years (CACF) Going backwards (Apr. I DISAGREETHE ENEMY WOULD SHOOT THE GUY NEXT TO THE RTO-KNOWING HE WAS THE COMMANDER. It was always quick/quick, load the bodies in and get the hell out. There must have been a real mathematician to come up with those calculations. Still, militarily, the Tet Offensive was a total defeat of the Communist forces on all fronts. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. A "Sapper" is a combat engineer soldier who is with the front line infantry troops. life expectancy of an infantry soldier in vietnam - lbgf.org Lowering my gun, I turned around and noticed two VC sitting in the doorway of the hut, staring at me. We could not see any enemy soldiers, but we could see smoke coming from their weapons through the trees. Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics After that initial post-service period, Vietnam veterans were no more likely to die from suicide than non-Vietnam veterans. Overrun and utterly destroyed, the 30-man 4th Platoon had suffered 21 killed and one missing. No. 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. Company A searched in vain for the platoon in the dark and finally found the shattered unit on the morning of May 19. 4314 0 obj <> endobj You were a Great RTO. I couldnt disagree. Foot soldiers went by the grace of God, but had a better chance than the infantry platoon commander in combat. 1 Gun. Enter the the Ksp expression forC2D3 in terms of the molar solubility x.? Saw from mostly safe distance almost all the weapons systems that where there used. 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. This Battle changed his life and his future, had it not been for his actions, every man on this FSB Gold would have died. U.S. Wings is a manufacturer and a supplier. Welcome home. US Wings is a veteran-owned business and an official supplier to the US Military. We were discussing the different units and dangers of each. Suddenly, I heard my name shouted from the Company B command group. 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. For example: 7*x^2. One out of every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam was a casualty. Id had a premonition, and asked the LT to let me trade off to become the AG. To cut the Ho Chi Minh Traila week after the mission endedthe trail was booming with business from the north.. Also: for years I have read those life-expectancy numbers never really understanding them, but also noting that they wildly vary. 4 Bill May and Spc. No. We were probably not too far away on that day. Spent my year in a Recon platoon 2/35th 4th ID. 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. When Roeski got hit, I took over the M-60. We had run patrols for about a month when I first saw action. It began just as, it was getting dark. 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. Thank You Roger!!! PLEASE HELP!!! 11,465 of those killed were younger than 20 years old. My good friend who was a RTO was killed. The man listed as missing was machine gunner Joe DeLong, captured along with No. At Fort Lewis, every recruit learned to operate various weapons. Correct. MEDEVAC helicopters flew nearly 500,000 missions. Before he was drafted Renza had worked as a hairdresser for women in his hometown of Peekskill, New York. African Americans played a prominent role in the Vietnam War. I would carry when on ambush. Bruce Grandstaff and my best friend, Sgt. 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 credit my longetivity to great training at Ft Benning. 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. Vietnam War Facts, Stats and Myths - US Wings Seattle, Washington(WA), 98106. What was the life expectancy of a point man in Vietnam? All that other stuff about seconds and minutes were story tellers, embellishing things to impress some listeners back home. In Vietnam, 1 in 400 of the wounded died of their . The first six or seven months I walked point for our platoon and led many ambushes and green eye patrols. I wasnt sure if the VC had moved to right or left, so I sprayed the elephant grass in both directions. Ordered to reinforce the unit, the Company B commander put our four platoons abreast of each other, and we marched west. Sometimes on Family Guy when there about to take someones heart out they say, calimar or maybe its spelled different. Of the . endstream endobj startxref It weighed 24 pounds, was 43.5 inches long and had bipod legs that folded down to stabilize the weapon when firing from a prone position. This is excellent! Thats why they called us GRUNTS ! The CDC Vietnam Experience Study Mortality Assessment showed that during the first 5 years after discharge, deaths from suicide were 1.7 times more likely among Vietnam veterans than non-Vietnam veterans. The jungle seemed to want No. Arthur Parker and Spc. The fact that PDoggbiker cant find any decent calculation/explanation, tells us a lot. One out of every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam was a casualty. I did worry about the strength of my flax vest. They were all up there scanning the terrain and looking for signs. We killed a lot of the enemy but we took few serious casualties. I carried the PRC-25 Radio most of that time. Sergeant Galiano's experience does not deny Brands depiction of the battle in Vietnam, but offers a typically overlooked perspective of a drafted soldier fighting in the central highlands of Vietnam. I was one of the lucky ones I came home without a physical scratch. wias. 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. 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. Thank God I made it. In your rucksack . year old Marine thinking this is my last day on earth. My second tour was as the S3 for LTC Anthony Herbertone of Americas greatest leaders and WARRIORS OF ALL TIME. As far as I knew that was done in the whole battalion in 1968 .

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