life expectancy of an infantry soldier in vietnamlife expectancy of an infantry soldier in vietnam

We were about 700 yards east of Company A when it was ambushed by an NVA battalion. Originally I went to the 543d TC. I did worry about the strength of my flax vest. If you would like to get a copy, and cant find it, let me know, and I will make sure you get one. The next three weeks passed uneventfully. So I guess I defied the odds. This is not Vietnam where a machine gunner's life expectancy was short because you had an entire army shooting at them. What was the life expectancy of a point man in Vietnam? Seattle, Washington(WA), 98106. Why is my internet redirecting to gslbeacon.ligit.com and how do I STOP THIS. Both were infantry in WW2. 5 seconds. How old are Vietnam vets now? where can i find red bird vienna sausage? This is hard to believe, losing nearly 711,000 between 95 and 00. A Co, 1/5 Cav, 1 Cav Division. In an instant the jungle erupted in gunfire. Was No. Do the math. They were great patriots fighting for their families and their homeland. 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. THANKS! . From a military standpoint, it was almost an unprecedented performance. 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). We flew north, then made a stop, in Cam Rahn Bay. 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. It didnt matter who you were or where you were. The Republic of Vietnam lost 1,018 aircraft and helicopters from January 1964 to September 1973. Shea's gallantry in action at the cost of his life were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon . 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. Soldiers also act in the mobilization of vehicles, weaponry, troops, and more. If it had been up to me, I would have awarded my gun the CIB too. Never knew they had life expectancy stats. I would carry when on ambush. He was not the type to hump a radio. Screaming Eagles! The earliest casualty record contains a date of death of . As a Huey door gunner, when we left the ground on a mission, I always thought that this mission would be my last! His body was torn to pieces. The Department of Defense Vietnam War Service Index officially provided by The War Library originally reported with errors that 2,709,918 U.S. military personnel as having served in-country. Army Infantrymen (11B) are the main land combat force, and known as "Eleven Bravo.". My friend May, I later learned, was doing the same thing in 2nd Platoon. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. As with much of the Vietnam War, the news media misreported and misinterpreted the 1968 Tet Offensive. 1st Platoon, C Company, 2nd Battalion 327th Infantry. Data based on the latest United Nations Population Division estimates. The rule of thumb was , any new guys would get the radio and keep it until another new guy came in. Work Plz. maybe your question i vauge. We went out typically in two boat patrols one lead one cover . Overrun and utterly destroyed, the 30-man 4th Platoon had suffered 21 killed and one missing. I will always think/say, we had absolutely no reason for being in that place. We had 5 kias and roughly 50 wounded in our company so about one in three got hit. I couldnt disagree. You just do the best job you can and if you got hit, so be it! We had run patrols for about a month when I first saw action. 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. The group found the first man killed and carried him up the hill, placing his body right next to me. Thats why they called us GRUNTS ! 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." Robert Sholly, standing with Platoon Sgt. 1 Gun and I now faced a new and more formidable foethe North Vietnamese Army. Spanish Help What is the life expectancy of Vietnam veterans? endstream endobj startxref Great information. Helicopters, F4 fighters. There were also wounded. 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. 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. 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. We all have opinions, this is mine. 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. Then the tempo changed suddenly and violently. What was the average life expectancy of a soldier in Vietnam? Life expectancy at birth. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. 85% of Vietnam Veterans made successful transitions to civilian life. I carried the PRC-25 for most of a year. Then one hot, sunny day, while walking across rice paddies, we suddenly received small-arms fire from Viet Cong in some distant hills. Fact: 2/3 of the men who served in Vietnam were volunteers. They were not randomly selected but simply the best at doing it. As some said, averages are meaningless. 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 was an FO back in the day. DeLong was later killed attempting to escape from a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp in Cambodia. I was an Artillery Forward Observer 13F20 E-5 at that time. Very interesting I carried theM 60 for 5 months that gun would cut down anything. Dap, Hope this helps. (LogOut/ Suddenly I realized that my platoon sergeant was screaming at me to stop firing. 2023 CherriesWriter - Vietnam War website, RTO, John Scheur. The average man who fought in World War II was 26 years of age. They were also in a circular formation. Over 600 Navy FMF Hospital Corpsmen were killed in Vietnam. 3 Answers C5H5N in water > C5H5NH+ & OH- Kb = [C5H5NH+] [OH-] / [C5H5N] 1.5e-9 = [x] 1. Posterior Thigh _____ 4. In the hands of a well-trained machine gunner, the M60 was a devastating weaponso feared by our opponents that they usually aimed their first shots at the machine gunners, who were often in positions exposed to enemy fire. I was with HHC and 1st Platoon C Company in 70-71. I was an O5C-20 in Vietnam. Fact: The American military was not defeated in Vietnam. HOOAH!!! No. Carried the prc25 for about 7 months. I look over to said to me. Remember he wanted to reenlist for one more year in Vietnam. Event date is used instead of declared dead date for some of those who were listed as missing in action). Some 23% of Vietnam vets had fathers with professional, managerial One out of every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam was a casualty. 4 Charlie Ranallo, were on No. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. Terrified, I dropped down as fast as I could, pulling the gun and two ammo belts of 100 rounds apiece on top of me as I fell back into the dry streambed. No. As mentioned, who kept track of that in the first place? He decided to stay even though he had a deep feeling he wasnt going to make it. An Hinglish word (Hindi/English). Combatants on both sides faced physical challenges posed by the climate, terrain and wildlife of the country. We killed a lot of the enemy but we took few serious casualties. wias. I didnt want any medals. I got shot on a mission with 45 days left. 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. In Company A, 22 men had been killedadded to the seven killed in Company B. After that initial post-service period, Vietnam veterans were no more likely to die from suicide than non-Vietnam veterans. Its not all written down. Express your answer in terms of x. Often as not he was right beside you with a stolen chicken and a bag of rice. We were very, lucky. 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. There must have been a real mathematician to come up with those calculations. For some reason, the written word of this article was somehow deleted and lost. 1 Gun. Required fields are marked *. My good friend who was a RTO was killed. Interesting reading. 1 Gun became my very best friend. Not much different than his unit. The average age of the men killed: 23.1 years. The key may be the word initial since we became more savvy with successive combats and had improved survivability. 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.) But it was my jobso I tried not to think about it much. The Marine Corps lost 14,836, or 5 percent . These records were transferred into the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration in 2008. At Fort Lewis, every recruit learned to operate various weapons. Tumbling end over end, the canisters exploded in a white-hot fireball. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. AS LEADERS IN AMERICAS SERVICES WE MUST BE PROFICIENT AND READY TO ACCOMPLISH OUR MISSIONS- I was an Infantry Scout Dog handler. Michael Doolittle..I was with 1/8 inf, 1st Brigade, and that day, March 22nd was also our darkest day. I just wanted to get off No. It was just north of Saigon. Me, a vehicle mechanic with Btry E, 41st Arty Quads 1970. The rolling fire burned everything to the ground and undoubtedly killed scores of NVA. Lowering my gun, I turned around and noticed two VC sitting in the doorway of the hut, staring at me. 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. my left and saw this rice paddie farmer and his ox and I was trying to motion him to get down he just looks at me and starts Welcome home!! Thank You Roger!!! KICK ASS AS NEEDED!!! He also worked on Jacqueline Kennedys hair pieces and wigs. 2) by my research, medics suffered 93% casualties with about 33% deaths. We were all in our Bunkers, and at the ready with our weapons. In Vietnam 70% 0f the casualties were Infantry BUT it might be 70% of ALL the Infantry that served in Vietnam. It is Honor in the Valley of Tears. My dad died of cancer at 52. We ambushed and got ambushed, firebase got attacked who carried what or did what had no bearing. approaching a village and a firefight starts). RIP KOOKIE forever young, Thank god you are still alive, I am age 77. Some gave all. Forget the statistics, we all had a job to do, we went where we were told. Papitto Opportunity Connections Mission: The Papitto Opportunity Connection (POC) is a private foundation dedicated to listening and working together with Rhode Islands BIPOC communities to empower and create individual success stories by investing in education, job skills training, and entrepreneurial ventures. If the enemy was near, we never saw any. Was I lucky ? Ron. https://open.spotify.com/show/5Th7BCpIKDE1hVTqNL3u0Q. They were glad to see me as it had been a while for replacements with the unit. What were the life expectancies of soldiers during the VietnamWar? I spent my year in Vietnam with the 1/22nd infantry part of the 4th division. No creo que Susana _____ (seguir) sobre los consejos de su mdico. My 31-months in-country was in three Direct Support US Army aviation units, 15TC BN, First Cav, 335TH, Americal and 17TH Cav 101ST ABD65-71In the last battle I was directly involved, LAM SON 719, into Laos, cost army aviation units over 600-helicopters shot down or battle damagedthe NVA were waiting for our SECRET mission in early 71I was glad to go home at battles end, in March 71 , almost unscathed, I was TDY for my absurd third tourTo the point, many ARVN Rangers, airborne and their other best died in Lam Son 719US Army Infantry were forbidden entry to Laos in 71.. the ARVN were massacredand many US Army pilots and crew mambers were KIA & WIAeven MIA. Then I dropped back down in the streambed to organize our ammo. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. So I guess i lasted longer than I was supposed to. They also had a 12 gauge, and a M 79 grenade launcher and M 16. The 4th Platoon survivors stayed put for the night. At this time- senior Army leadership ordered us all to read the Geneva Convention to our troops because of the My Lai debachle. The casualty rate in the current war today is a fraction. If it was your day to get hit or die, it happened. Very Good , I was a radio operator up in I corps in 68 & to me the worst thing was the walking . I sure feel for all you guys that went outside the wire. Although we do tend to bomb a lot, thats only half of what we do. Cruz quite a lot. Mi hermana se sorprende N-F C-F Cl-F F-F 2 Answers C-F is the most polar. 4 Answers aaja Come. Gotta say I think you hit it on the nose. Background [ edit] Thanks. I was in the AF a Reo in a F4-C. Who had time to worry about the life Welcome home brothers and sisters. It was an honor indeed to serve with some of the finest soldiers I have ever met. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. Either way, thats a lot of soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen, male and female that made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, and there are still people dying as a result of their wounds receiver so very long ago in a place called Vietnam. They were lazy, cowardly and of questionable loyalty, especially the RUFF/PUFFS, and they would steal your under ware if given half a chance. An interesting comment I had. 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. I was also told that the Radio did put a target on my back. 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.. If you were an administrative officer or clerk in an air-conditioned trailer in Saigon, your war might be a lot like peacetime duty. Here is an 18 75,000 Vietnam veterans are severely disabled. The next morning, the blasting could still be, heard. According to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) there are now officially 58, 318 names on the wall. No combat assignments for another year of service in Vietnam or get out in about a month. Over the next two months, we exchanged fire with groups of the NVA. 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. It was an HONOR and a privilege to serve with these brave men for my 11 month tour. They were all up there scanning the terrain and looking for signs. 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:? You can find the polarity of a compound by finding electronegativities (an atoms desire for an electron) of the atoms; Carbon has an electronegativity of 2.5, compared to Fluorines A) Enter the the Ksp expression for the solid AB2 in terms of the molar solubility x. I credit my longetivity to great training at Ft Benning. See also: Population Vietnam veterans' personal income exceeds that of our non-veteran age group by more than 18 percent. Our chase after the enemy unwittingly led us into a large ambush. It was on the Job Training ! 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. Wortman, another RTO never made it back to The World. 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. Nixon Presidential Papers. (Getty Images) Most war stories are about soldiers and battles. We gathered the casualties and set out for Company A. a RTO got killed, it happened within 5 seconds but not that always ALL RTOs got killed. There is no difference in drug usage between Vietnam Veterans and non-Vietnam Veterans of the same age group (Source: Veterans Administration Study). Or is it on display in a Hanoi museum so curious citizens of that city can inspect a weapon captured from American imperialists? Nicknamed "the pig" due to its size, weight and sound, the gun struck fear into enemy troops. Date: March 8, 2020 Author: pdoggbiker 97 Comments Photo above is of Stanley Kober with RTO, John Scheur. I was to have that experience two more times before it was over. (tirotactico.net). _____ 1. Our 5th night there, the AMMO area started burning / blowing up. The CACF is the basis for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (The Wall): Average age of 58,148 killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years. The average infantryman in Vietnam saw about 240 days of combat in one year thanks to the mobility of the helicopter. Roger Loves you too, Im sure. 1 Gun used to kill Americans? Lucky you. 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 wasnt sure if the VC had moved to right or left, so I sprayed the elephant grass in both directions. Joe DeLong joined the company, and Sholly informed me that he would be the M60 gunner. 4 Bill May and Spc. 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. Their personal income exceeds that of our non-veteran age group by more than 18 percent. . General Westmoreland quoting Douglas Pike (a professor at the University of California, Berkeley), a major military defeat for the VC and NVA. The blasts from the AMMO, really lit up the whole area. Name the major nerves that serve the following body areas? I told by RTO that i could carry my own radio, When he agreed he was humping ammo. 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. Found NVA bunker complex. 1 Gun and I survived our first firefight. All that other stuff about seconds and minutes were story tellers, embellishing things to impress some listeners back home. They were a great bunch. 2 Gun to Ranallo. I never saw any correlation as to what MOS a soldier was and their survival rate. The Vietnamese pilot who dropped the napalm in error is currently living in the United States. It was very nearly my last. It was a chaotic nightmare. Sgt. Learned a lot from him. Fact: The average infantryman in the South Pacific during World War II saw about 40 days of combat in four years. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. A much better approach would be/have been: of all the combat-casualties, what was their RIght there and the NVA we were usually up against knew this. 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 am proud to have fought alongside of them. Hi, the whole thing is going nicely here and ofcourse every one 1 Gun before my luck ran out. 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. No trees or anything on the ground. If the NVA shot at the group retrieving the bodies, I was to fire over the heads of the grunts and engage the enemy. Four platoons in a rifle company. Your email address will not be published. At age 55, World War 2 Veterans Can I use this word like this: The addressal by the C.E.O. 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. 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). Commanders like him were few and far between many were afraid of their own shadow and were only there to get their ticket punched. Es ridculo que t ______ (tener) un resfriado en verano. 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. The oldest man killed was 62 years old. That same day, I along with 3/4 others was transported to Long Bhin Post. Ha Ha always enjoyed being a volunteer! . Nervous, I set up my gun on the hill and loaded a new hundred-round belt. I was a point man, M60 Gunner and squad leader. I carried the PRC-25 Radio most of that time. 10 1/2 months in the bush. Contents1 [] 4 Joey Piambino were to my right in the streambed. The answer that we have always been given is that 1 year in the Infantry is equivalent to 3 years of hard labor. 1 Gun onto a small hill and provide security while others retrieved them. 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. Ambulances are not supposed to be armed (either) though in training, medics are told they and their vehicles will be a prime target. This makes our site more accessible to the blind, visually impaired, motor disabled, people with cognitive disabilities and more. I won a few times, and even when I did not I benefited from handling the gun under stress. 1 Gun was on my hip with the safety off, ready to rock and roll. Welcome home. We used to provide cover for these guys. The average life expectancy of a front-line soldier in eastern Ukraine is four hours, a Marine said. we were getting it with machine gun and mortars. I served in A Company 3/22 of the 3rd Brigade 4th Infantry 12/66, then Hq Co 2/12 of the 3rd Brigade 25th Inf until the night of the TET offensive end of January 1968 and returned home July 18 1968. It was always quick/quick, load the bodies in and get the hell out. 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. The other group of aeromedical evacuation were divisional, i.e. .. 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. I, in turn, would take an M16 rifle, which felt like a feather in comparison. Thats what I figured but didnt know for sure. Lived too tell about it. There were usually 3 man (At least 2) point teams. Soon after, Pfc. Every single . As I made my way to the river, I saw a VC guerrilla jump into the water on the other side. The early days of May 1970, I arrived at the Airport, next to Saigon. I always felt that Infantry units were in more danger because of ambush issues and no permanent defensive structures. 10-4. May was eventually able to hand off 2nd Platoons No. The U.S. Infantryman Vietnam Pocket Manual contains gems such as infantry "patrol tips," maneuver techniques, and fighting methods for various environments. From Cam Rahn, we kept flying north to, a Landing Zone near QUANG TRI. Five RTOs. 97% of Vietnam Veterans were honorably discharged. 74% say they would serve again, even knowing the outcome. 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 I've never heard about the life expectancy of 6 weeks (even with a short google search). Together we had passed the test. I was told my life expectancy was about 45 secs during a fire fight because of the weapons and demo I carried. I prayed I would not have to fire over the heads of the 4th Platoon troops entering the draw to retrieve our dead. Re: Helicopter Crews (Medevac & Dustoff): To my knowledge, only the 1st Cav Medevac had M60s for protection.
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