US Wings is a veteran-owned business and an official supplier to the US Military. Army Infantrymen (11B) are the main land combat force, and known as "Eleven Bravo.". Soldiers from 2nd Platoon, Company C, 87th Infantry Regiment, walk on patrol north of the Long . Welcome Home Roger. They were lazy, cowardly and of questionable loyalty, especially the RUFF/PUFFS, and they would steal your under ware if given half a chance. 2: role (MOS?). Our battalion operated at a base camp near Tuy Hoa in Phu Yen province along the South China Sea from October 1966 to January 1967. Statistics about the Vietnam War - VHPA Veteran Owned Since 1986. endstream endobj startxref 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 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. 8h%5HF8r,X'q#Vtgz%)P/Oi#rU(uO&*Xx1t^=xVLi Nicknamed "the pig" due to its size, weight and sound, the gun struck fear into enemy troops. I wasnt aware that they kept life expectancy statistics. I was sitting on the ground one day trying to dry out my gear and better configure my ruck when my squad leader came walking over to me and said, Gow, youve got the radio. As he turned and walked away! rice farmer who was still working with is ox like nothing ever 0 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. We took fire all the time and responded. The last American troops departed in their entirety 29 March 1973. Posterior Thigh _____ 4. No. BS but ia a way you are correct. 4 Charlie Ranallo, were on No. Our chase after the enemy unwittingly led us into a large ambush. As we approached the battle, we heard intense firing. I was a point man, M60 Gunner and squad leader. Ed, I was in a Grunt Platoon in Vietnam 70-71. Ron. To cut the Ho Chi Minh Traila week after the mission endedthe trail was booming with business from the north.. The other group of aeromedical evacuation were divisional, i.e. Thanks for posting! Your Dad and I had the same job. Was it left behind on some forgotten battlefield? Men and women die everyday. In the 1st Cav medics were right behind the rto making them a very easy find also. The Regiment traces its lineage back to World War II. If the enemy was near, we never saw any. I remember hearing a Lieutenant (Kennedy) say to one of his two platoon RTOs My RTO is Foxtrot Uniform. Theres 58,276. The jungle seemed to want No. 99% of infantry men will currently live to die of natural causes. I was also told that the Radio did put a target on my back. We can all hold our heads high and be proud of our service. It was more or less next man up . 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. Three-fourths had family incomes above the poverty level; 50% were from middle income backgrounds. Once we turned on the radar they could hit us with a harm missile. 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. of what was usually 5 or 6 going in and many times the leads would find traps, punji pits or the VC waiting. I was a REMF but Ive heard of 05Cs that were stuck out in the boonies on a firebase. The blasts from the AMMO, really lit up the whole area. Company A searched in vain for the platoon in the dark and finally found the shattered unit on the morning of May 19. waving then I realized they Werent shooting at him only at the The fact is that most machine gunners, RTOs, junior officers and other extremely dangerous jobs survived the war. Dap, Hope this helps. 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. Soldiers also act in the mobilization of vehicles, weaponry, troops, and more. PDF Mortality Rates and Life Expectancy of Veterans from 1980 to 2017, and 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 U.S. Infantryman Vietnam Pocket Manual contains gems such as infantry "patrol tips," maneuver techniques, and fighting methods for various environments. life expectancy of an infantry soldier in vietnam - lbgf.org He said fighting was especially deadly in the war-torn city of Bakhmut, dubbed "the meat . Four platoons in a rifle company. 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. Very Good , I was a radio operator up in I corps in 68 & to me the worst thing was the walking . I packed my own radio and got a Thank you from his Mom. As mentioned, who kept track of that in the first place? It is Honor in the Valley of Tears. Thank You Roger!!! Thanks. I look over to Remember he wanted to reenlist for one more year in Vietnam. 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.. I may not have hit anyone that day, but I am certain that No. 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. The one number that is really important is 56,220 and we all know what that number represents. This is hard to believe, losing nearly 711,000 between 95 and 00. Nervous, I set up my gun on the hill and loaded a new hundred-round belt. 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. located on the South End of, the Post. Still, militarily, the Tet Offensive was a total defeat of the Communist forces on all fronts. We looked for cover and returned fire the best we could. El subjuntivo The Tet Offensive succeeded on only one front and that was the News front and the political arena. No combat assignments for another year of service in Vietnam or get out in about a month. That was supposed to be 58, 220. but wait, there are more numbers for the same story. If my memory is correct, only the 1st Cab flew wiith doorgunners. 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 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. Mech. 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. (Although 58,169 names are in the Nov. 93 database, only 58,148 have both event date and birth date. I traveled to Fort Lewis, Washington, and trained there for 10 months before deploying to Vietnam as specialist 4. Nixon Presidential Papers. I do remember when I got short I thought about it a lot more. Well, according to current mortality and morbidity statistics for the USright around 77.5 Years! 87% of Americans hold Vietnam Veterans in high esteem. 1 Gun before my luck ran out. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. They also had a 12 gauge, and a M 79 grenade launcher and M 16. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. All that other stuff about seconds and minutes were story tellers, embellishing things to impress some listeners back home. The first man to die in Vietnam was James Davis, in 1961. we were getting it with machine gun and mortars. If the NVA shot at the group retrieving the bodies, I was to fire over the heads of the grunts and engage the enemy. As of the current Census taken during August, 2000, the surviving U.S. Vietnam Veteran population estimate is: 1,002,511. three, he believes he is doing what his country wants him to dojust like you So you better damn well treat him with the compassion you want for you!! then youd carry an extra 200 rounds of M60 ammo for the machine gunner , plus drag grenades , one smoke grenade plus etc. The average age of the 58,148 US Servicemembers killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years (CACF) Going backwards (Apr. 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. That was a hell of a responsibility to take on. So I guess I defied the odds. The first six or seven months I walked point for our platoon and led many ambushes and green eye patrols. Cluster F, SNAFU and FUBAR fer sur. Very interesting I carried theM 60 for 5 months that gun would cut down anything. I am 16 years old an 150 pounds qith some good muscle. It was one of my most memorable tours in the Navy I later went to a carrier and was bored silly because I had about 1% of the responsibilities I had as an O-2. I didnt want any medals. After a quick lesson, DeLong became the new owner of 4th Platoons No.1 Gun. 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. 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). The first thing my platoon sgt. The casualty rate in the current war today is a fraction. After a couple of hours, the Viet Cong stopped shooting and melted back into the jungle. 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. An infantry platoon commander in combat had an average of 6 weeks life expectancy. On the morning of March 22, 1967, companies A and B of my battalion began a search-and-destroy operation along the Cambodian border. Me, a vehicle mechanic with Btry E, 41st Arty Quads 1970. 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. Comments were more interesting than the article it self. We soon learned that the NVA troops were very different from the local guerrillas we had fought around Tuy Hoa. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. I quit trying to make sense of all the numbers that have been generated about Vietnam. The Army suffered the most total casualties, 38,179 or 2.7 percent of its force. This article appeared in the October 2021 issue of Vietnam magazine. To an, open area. I felt the same way jumping off the chopper with my m-60, 300. rounds of ammo,grenades,sandbags and six canteens of water. aND, mAY GOD BLESS AMERICA!!! Interesting reading. 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. Then the tempo changed suddenly and violently. %PDF-1.5 % 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. When I popped back up to put out some automatic fire, a bullet whizzed by my earno more than an inch from my headand slammed into the tree next to me, shattering the bark. 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. No. From 1957 to 1973, the National Liberation Front assassinated 36,725 Vietnamese and abducted another 58,499. Id love to see the casualties listed by Corps ? What is the life expectancy of an army infantry soldier? Fact: No American had involvement in this incident near Trang Bang that burned Phan Thi Kim Phuc. I had to rely on my gun more than before. Also, it has been incorrectly reported that two of Kim Phucs brothers were killed in this incident. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. DeLong had only fired the weapon once in training, so I let him fire off a few rounds to practice. 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. Combatants on both sides faced physical challenges posed by the climate, terrain and wildlife of the country. I sure feel for all you guys that went outside the wire. He was not the type to hump a radio. One out of every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam was a casualty. A typical Patrol Boat River (PBR) was about 31 feet long and had twin 50s forward an M 60 midships and a 50 aft. Different type units, different locations, different opinions on dangers. 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. Then we learned, appx: 1 mile to our North was, an American AMMO storage area. Ha Ha always enjoyed being a volunteer! My assistant gunner and my ammo bearer also carried 300 rounds each. 82nd 2/505th. I saw aircraft loaded with troops explode in mid-air. Over 600 Navy FMF Hospital Corpsmen were killed in Vietnam. Fact: Mortality studies show that 9,000 is a better estimate. 2) by my research, medics suffered 93% casualties with about 33% deaths. Non-divisional aeromedical evacuation units went by the callsign DUSTOFF. Bravo, 3/187th Inf, 101st Airborne Div, 2nd Plt, 2nd Sq, Hamburger Hill, May 69. The early days of May 1970, I arrived at the Airport, next to Saigon. We were about 700 yards east of Company A when it was ambushed by an NVA battalion. Thats why I never understand people talking about survivors guilt it should have been me, why him? etc. 11 c mos , meaning I was also cross trained for mortars . E)V_5lu[vC3+"vg2L& In Service to My Men | Article | The United States Army https://open.spotify.com/show/5Th7BCpIKDE1hVTqNL3u0Q. The two platoons were to advance no more than 200 yards from the main body of the company. The article was interesting. The average time lapse between wounding to hospitalization was less than one hour. (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. U.S. Wings is a manufacturer and a supplier. We were all in our Bunkers, and at the ready with our weapons. I had been shot in the back early in the battle and was lying behind a log with two other soldiers. You just do the best job you can and if you got hit, so be it! 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. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. The average age of the 58,148 US Servicemembers killed in Vietnam was . You were a Great RTO. V. Victor Renza was sent home after he was wounded on May 18, 1967. I have a fried Who is killed in Vietnam six months before I got there cause of death was other how would I find out since his parents are long gone, Do a search for his name n Coffeltdatabase.org, Sir, would you mind me translating this into Spanish and getting it posted in our blog? THE MAN I INHERITED THE GUN FROM WASNT SO LUCKY. 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!