I felt the same way jumping off the chopper with my m-60, 300. rounds of ammo,grenades,sandbags and six canteens of water. Together we had passed the test. Ambushed on October 4th,1967. Now we know. Both halves quickly swept toward the river to clear the village. Gotta say I think you hit it on the nose. Arthur Parker and Spc. I personally believe and agree with previous posts that when its your time, not much you can do. My dad died of cancer at 52. 82nd 2/505th. Surrounded by an enemy battalion, our hopelessly outnumbered platoon waged a desperate battle for survival. He was not the type to hump a radio. Robert Sholly, standing with Platoon Sgt. 1,713,823 of those who served in Vietnam were still alive as of August, 1995 (census figures). 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. DeLong was later killed attempting to escape from a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp in Cambodia. 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. Its not all written down. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. Of those killed, 61% were younger than 21 years old. Needless too say I depended on Sgt. The earliest casualty record contains a date of death of . Mech. Life expectancy at birth. I wasnt aware that they kept life expectancy statistics. 8h%5HF8r,X'q#Vtgz%)P/Oi#rU(uO&*Xx1t^=xVLi It was more or less next man up . I packed my own radio and got a Thank you from his Mom. The casualty rate in the current war today is a fraction. 1 Gun and I survived our first firefight. Take out the power center, youve got the edge. While traveling through the boonies the first few men were usually always shot first. Not to mention that right now its safer than some cities in the us. Id had a premonition, and asked the LT to let me trade off to become the AG. Then he said youre on a FB, the enemy always knows your location, can pretty much attack at will, and you really dont have the capability to retreat. Assigned to HHC 1/77 Armor, 1st, BDE 5th Inf. The Tet Offensive succeeded on only one front and that was the News front and the political arena. The average age of the 58,148 US Servicemembers killed in Vietnam was . The smell of those charred bodies, blackened and smoking from the napalm strike, is something I can never forget. The group found the first man killed and carried him up the hill, placing his body right next to me. Hi, the whole thing is going nicely here and ofcourse every one No trees or anything on the ground. Information presented by SFC (Ret) David Hack. hmK#1+yNvA Like most inexperienced gunners, he underestimated the power of the pig and failed to keep the barrel down when firing. 240 men were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War. 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? They were well-armed, well-trained and knew how to fight. Different jobs have different life expectancy. 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. An Hinglish word (Hindi/English). I was an RTO for 9-1/2 months for Hawk Recon 2/327 101AB from dec, 1969 to sept 70. Some 23% of Vietnam vets had fathers with professional, managerial In Vietnam, 1 in 400 of the wounded died of their . There were usually 3 man (At least 2) point teams. Answer (1 of 12): It heavily depends. I am convinced the same NVA soldier who shot at me moments before had killed my good friend, a budding doo-wop singer from Long Island, New York. I worried about that kind of leadership style in the highlands. 4 Answers aaja Come. I loved it. We do have infantry (why do you think we have that MOS? 10 1/2 months in the bush. waving then I realized they Werent shooting at him only at the Wortman, another RTO never made it back to The World. 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. is sharing facts, thats truly good, keep up writing. The average life expectancy of a front-line soldier in eastern Ukraine is four hours, a Marine said. They also struggled with logistical problems and the complex political situation in Vietnam. 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? 2 Gun.. We were very, lucky. PDF Mortality Rates and Life Expectancy of Veterans - Veterans Affairs Both served in A 2/18 1st Infantry Division. Thanks for the perceived loss and the countless assassinations and torture visited upon Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians goes mainly to the American media and their undying support-by-misrepresentation of the anti-War movement in the United States. We were about 700 yards east of Company A when it was ambushed by an NVA battalion. Contents 1 Unclear objectives 2 North Vietnamese strategy 1 gun! Everyone laughed. I prayed I would not have to fire over the heads of the 4th Platoon troops entering the draw to retrieve our dead. 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. 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). Was a door gunner and crew chief for just shy of 18 months (I extended to get out early). As I made my way to the river, I saw a VC guerrilla jump into the water on the other side. 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. The oldest man killed was 62 years old. Interesting reading. I was a point man, M60 Gunner and squad leader. However, Shermans were very outmatched by the German tanks on the field of battle. After a couple of hours, the Viet Cong stopped shooting and melted back into the jungle. 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. The helicopter provided unprecedented mobility. We were in2dBn 503d . For example: 7*x^2. both tours. Fact: The American military was not defeated in Vietnam. 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 An interesting essay, even more interesting are the comments. Were talking averages, obviously so, an RTO, with an expectancy of 5 seconds (!) 5 Answers There is no word like addressal. How old are Vietnam vets now? No. MEDEVAC helicopters flew nearly 500,000 missions. Not much different than his unit. Although we do tend to bomb a lot, thats only half of what we do. A dense mass of elephant grass hung over the riverbank, and he ducked under it. May was eventually able to hand off 2nd Platoons No. This makes our site more accessible to the blind, visually impaired, motor disabled, people with cognitive disabilities and more. Supported by a shoulder strap, No. Sept 69 to Sept 70. Umm..maybe its because we also learn from experience. 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. In the few firefights and skirmishes we had with local VC, the gun always performed well. Background [ edit] To an, open area. My heart was pounding out of my chest. 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. Company A searched in vain for the platoon in the dark and finally found the shattered unit on the morning of May 19. It was the silent power of the pig, I suppose. 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! Expenditures for a body in a combat zone? What unit lost the most soldiers in Vietnam? Cluster F, SNAFU and FUBAR fer sur. DeLong had only fired the weapon once in training, so I let him fire off a few rounds to practice. During that same Census count, the number of Americans falsely claiming to have served was: 9,492,958. 4 Charlie Ranallo, were on No. The Indonesians threw the Soviets out in 1966 because of Americas commitment in Vietnam. See also: Population History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. Some were constantly exposed to combat, some not so often. We were like sitting Ducks. KICK ASS AS NEEDED!!! %PDF-1.5 % 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. If youre American (which you probably are), I could give a f***. See my calculation below in the comments bogus indeed. Before he was drafted Renza had worked as a hairdresser for women in his hometown of Peekskill, New York. 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. _____ 1. More importantly, Grandstaff was very gung-ho. We looked for cover and returned fire the best we could. 1 Gun. Bravo, 3/187th Inf, 101st Airborne Div, 2nd Plt, 2nd Sq, Hamburger Hill, May 69. They were Kims cousins not her brothers. 2,709,918 Americans served in uniform in Vietnam. Company B arrived in-country with four rifle platoons, and each platoon was armed with two M60s. Then we learned, appx: 1 mile to our North was, an American AMMO storage area. 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. Ed, I was in a Grunt Platoon in Vietnam 70-71. No. We then took all Trucks and equipment to the Port Of Saigon. He was with the 509th Radio Research Station. happened. Hats off to them. A much better approach would be/have been: of all the combat-casualties, what was their I met a Marine a few years ago who was stationed North of Da Nang. The Army suffered the most total casualties, 38,179 or 2.7 percent of its force. Fact: Assuming KIAs accurately represented age groups serving in Vietnam, the average age of an infantryman (MOS 11B) serving in Vietnam to be 19 years old is a myth, it is actually 22. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Address: 9241 13th Ave SW If you were an administrative officer or clerk in an air-conditioned trailer in Saigon, your war might be a lot like peacetime duty. I was a helicopter pilot A Co, 1/5 Cav, 1 Cav Division. Naturally I was excited at the opportunity to join Sanzone, but at the same time I hated leaving 2nd Platoons No. As a result, less than one percent of all Americans wounded, who survived the first 24 hours, died. Interesting, I carried a Prick 25, for 2 months. Of the . Just to show that its hard to get an accurate number, note my typo of 56,220. The TOTAL number of CIB and CMB awarded would give you the answer !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Before I became a team leader on ambush and recon I was in command of the scout jeep for the 25th ID resupply convoy from January 1968 to June 15, 1968 and I found the resupply convoys a lot more dangerous because the enemy always knew where it would be and when. That was supposed to be 58, 220. but wait, there are more numbers for the same story. S/F, There were no door gunners on dustoffs. 17 photos showing the life of an elite US Army Ranger Welcome Home Roger. approaching a village and a firefight starts). By the time we reached Vietnam in October 1966 I felt the gun had become a part of me. This Battle changed his life and his future, had it not been for his actions, every man on this FSB Gold would have died. To my surprise, I qualified as an expert with the M60 machine gun, nicknamed the pig because of the size, weight and sound of the weapon. 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. Photo above is of Stanley Kober with RTO, John Scheur. This is excellent! To cut the Ho Chi Minh Traila week after the mission endedthe trail was booming with business from the north.. The answer that we have always been given is that 1 year in the Infantry is equivalent to 3 years of hard labor. by Zita Ballinger Fletcher 1/18/2022. No. I was on a radar crew and we were told that, during war time, we would most likely be killed within minutes. We had been carrying machine guns for over seven months. Then the tempo changed suddenly and violently. I was an FO back in the day. I couldnt see DeLong and didnt know if No. They have a lower unemployment rate than the same non-vet age groups. As it was, less than 40 did not need evacuation. 1 gun and was hoping it would stay that way. If the enemy was near, we never saw any. The first man to die in Vietnam was James Davis, in 1961. What percentage of Vietnam veterans actually saw combat? I was a 2nd Lt. Infantry platoon Leader. Fact: No American had involvement in this incident near Trang Bang that burned Phan Thi Kim Phuc. We had 5 kias and roughly 50 wounded in our company so about one in three got hit. 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. 2) by my research, medics suffered 93% casualties with about 33% deaths. 1 Gun, I jumped into a small dry streambed with Domke, my assistant gunner. What was the average life expectancy of a soldier in battle on - Quora Some unfortunately also came home with physical scars. Thank You for your courageous service as an RTO with the legendary Hawk Recon Platoon. 1 Gun over my shoulder, grabbed a corner of a poncho and stumbled off with three other soldiers. 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). The other group of aeromedical evacuation were divisional, i.e. Fact: 86% of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasians, 12.5% were black, 1.2% were other races. I was one of the many others I rode river boats in the Mekong Jan 68 to 69. We walked the mountains and rice patties all thru Tu Thien Province. I put the M60s bipod legs down, lifted the weapon and positioned it on the ground outside the streambed facing the NVA. They were great patriots fighting for their families and their homeland. 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. 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. Was the 7th Infantry in Vietnam? - 2023 He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star in 1974. The peace settlement was signed in Paris on 27 January 1973. B)Enter the the Ksp expression forC2D3 in terms of the molar solubility x. Jimmy aaja -M.I.A. Army Infantryman (MOS 11B): 2022 Career Profile - Operation Military Kids July 68 to July 69. 99% of infantry men will currently live to die of natural causes. The Kb of pyridine, C5H5N, is 1.5 x 10-9. The article was interesting. A Marine on patrol crosses a rice paddy in Vietnam holding an M60 machine gun in 1966. Your article was quite interesting. Our 5th night there, the AMMO area started burning / blowing up. It means, IF (!) The Vietnamese pilot who dropped the napalm in error is currently living in the United States. I was drafted on Nov. 10, 1965, and assigned to the 4th Infantry Division. He served as a sergeant with the Big Red One in Lai Khe, Vietnam. Just published my book The Last Goodbye by John Fratangelo, available on line on Barnes and Noble and Amazon Prime Books, Getting great reviews. We killed a lot of the enemy but we took few serious casualties. Our patrols were typically about 14 hours 24/7 We operated of old LSTs and large barges. I may not have hit anyone that day, but I am certain that No. Both were infantry in WW2. !We dont abuse prisoners Now, if he reaches for his weapon to continue the fight BLOW HIS ASS AWAY THIS AINT SUNDAY SCHOOL!!! I was a cmbt engr demolition specialist carried a 45 auto and an M70 grenade launcher in addition to the C-4 and Det Cord. Lt lost a finger, same time. A "Sapper" is a combat engineer soldier who is with the front line infantry troops. In that time 4 us kia and 4 wounded. 2 Gun to Ranallo. 1st Platoon, C Company, 2nd Battalion 327th Infantry. Data based on the latest United Nations Population Division estimates. This makes calculations of those alive, even in 2017, difficult to maintain. But it was my jobso I tried not to think about it much. 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). Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Learned a lot from him. (LogOut/ 0 I do remember when I got short I thought about it a lot more. I watched in horror as four NVA soldiers ambled through the branches of a downed tree that partially concealed us. Great reading. Most war stories are about soldiers and battles. Point was the safest place to be,they knew to wait for key elements, RTO, Medica, M60 Gunners. Then one hot, sunny day, while walking across rice paddies, we suddenly received small-arms fire from Viet Cong in some distant hills. Bob Sanzone. Which soldier had the shortest life-expectancy? - Quora All of the next day, we could see SMOKE from the fire caused by the explosions of the AMMO at, the AMMO DUMP. My second tour was as the S3 for LTC Anthony Herbertone of Americas greatest leaders and WARRIORS OF ALL TIME. Here are statistics from the Combat Area Casualty File (CACF) as of November 1993. These records were transferred into the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration in 2008. Sure but so was everyone else who went 12 months without getting killed or wounded. The Bn & Company I was assigned to, was on the last row of Bldgs. Well he didnt make it. By this census, FOUR OUT OF FIVE WHO CLAIM TO BE VIETNAM VETS ARE NOT. I handled Top Secret Commo on a daily basis. As a Huey door gunner, when we left the ground on a mission, I always thought that this mission would be my last! US Wings is a verified SAM Contractor and DLA Supplier and is officially listed as a manufacturer/retailer in the US Department of Commerce's Office of Textile and Apparel (OTEXA) Made in the USA database. . 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. 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. 1 Gun before my luck ran out. I remember hearing a Lieutenant (Kennedy) say to one of his two platoon RTOs My RTO is Foxtrot Uniform. The battalion was sending us to a village with a small river running through it. In the last 5 years the symptoms of PTSD and AO are starting getting worse in me. Interesting but something is missing. An infantry platoon commander in combat had an average of 6 weeks life expectancy. 67-67 11B 4th Id. where can i find red bird vienna sausage? 2/3 of the men who served in World War II were drafted. We were probably not too far away on that day. 2: role (MOS?). 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. 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. Do the math. Welcome home!! The fact is that most machine gunners, RTOs, junior officers and other extremely dangerous jobs survived the war. We ambushed and got ambushed, firebase got attacked who carried what or did what had no bearing. U.S. Wings is a manufacturer and a supplier. The average age of the 58,148 US Servicemembers killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years (CACF) Going backwards (Apr. I was in 2nd Platoon and carried the platoons No. Some Brothers said why spend another year in this hellhole???? Veteran Owned Since 1986. I was an Infantry Scout Dog handler. Vietnam Veterans are less likely to be in prison only one-half of one percent of Vietnam Veterans have been jailed for crimes. 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 . What is the life expectancy of Vietnam veterans? I was a medic on one for two yrs and the only weapon I was issue was a six-shot .38. Ha Ha always enjoyed being a volunteer! At Fort Lewis, every recruit learned to operate various weapons. Fact: The average infantryman in the South Pacific during World War II saw about 40 days of combat in four years. I think those numbers are percentages of US KIA, not mortality times. Day in the life of a Vietnam Soldier | History 118: US History Since 1877 The trailer for that video can be seen by googling the title, and it might still be sold on Amazon. Here is an 18 The NVA had wedged a blocking force between our company and Company A, preventing us from advancing any farther. https://open.spotify.com/show/5Th7BCpIKDE1hVTqNL3u0Q. The Marine Corps lost 14,836, or 5 percent . What was the life expectency of a private soldier in vietnam? 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. I always felt that Infantry units were in more danger because of ambush issues and no permanent defensive structures. I couldnt disagree. He was wounded and suffered permanent disability shortly before his tour was up. This has been going on for about a week Every time I try to watch a video on Youtube from my laptop I get instantly redirected to "gslbeacon.ligit.com." Over 600 Navy FMF Hospital Corpsmen were killed in Vietnam. I saw aircraft loaded with troops explode in mid-air. 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. life expectancy of an infantry soldier in vietnam - lbgf.org 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.. Never knew they had life expectancy stats. They also had a 12 gauge, and a M 79 grenade launcher and M 16. It had a crew of 4 (forward gunner, the coxswain (steering and driving) and the two aft gunners. Me molesta que mis padres no ______ (cuidar) su alimentacin.. 3. Thanks for posting! I had to rely on my gun more than before. E)V_5lu[vC3+"vg2L& Staying alive was kinda of important. 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. In fact, after the 5-year post-service period, the rate of suicides is less in the Vietnam veterans group. We flew north, then made a stop, in Cam Rahn Bay. As the entire platoon hit the ground, I saw guys crawling back toward me.
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