Ambushed on October 4th,1967. The fall of Saigon happened 30 April 1975, two years AFTER the American military left Vietnam. 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! Which soldier had the shortest life-expectancy? - Quora (many of the Soviet casualties were POWs, though). After a quick lesson, DeLong became the new owner of 4th Platoons No.1 Gun. The machine guns were numbered within each platoon. My heart was pounding out of my chest. Information presented by SFC (Ret) David Hack. Day in the life of a Vietnam Soldier | History 118: US History Since 1877 Radiomen in the Vietnam War faced a 5-second life expectancy Lucky you. Expenditures for a body in a combat zone? I would carry when on ambush. As I made it back to the road I remember seeing the By this census, FOUR OUT OF FIVE WHO CLAIM TO BE VIETNAM VETS ARE NOT. He decided to stay even though he had a deep feeling he wasnt going to make it. Also , it I might add that the, Government big wigs, have a quota [percentage]of a lot of the Military equipment etc that had a certain amount of time to function until it was disable, blow up, wrecked, junk, etc. 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. It was an HONOR and a privilege to serve with these brave men for my 11 month tour. Screaming Eagles! We could not see any enemy soldiers, but we could see smoke coming from their weapons through the trees. The United States sought to minimize and prevent attacks on civilians while North Vietnam made attacks on civilians a centerpiece of its strategy. Rules may have changed, I was in the Delta region. Sholly injured an ankle, and 1st Lt. Cary Allen took command of Company B. They were Kims cousins not her brothers. The fact is that most machine gunners, RTOs, junior officers and other extremely dangerous jobs survived the war. HOOAH!!! When we reached Company A, we placed our dead in the center of the two-company perimeter. Out of thousands of men that invaded that town in southern Afghanistan, we have lost 19. 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. Suddenly I realized that my platoon sergeant was screaming at me to stop firing. However, inaccurately reported, the News Media made the Tet Offensive famous. Two points: 1) at least in Army units, Medevacs (dust offs) flew unarmed aircraft. ), special forces, combat support, engineering, medics, and vehicle assault weapons. rice farmer who was still working with is ox like nothing ever I didnt want any medals. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. Then we learned, appx: 1 mile to our North was, an American AMMO storage area. However, it was the discretion of the individual crewmen if they wanted to carry personal weapons or not. Totally bogus. I was wounded 3 times during the 10 1/2 months I was in-country before being medevacd out in Apr of 68. We looked for cover and returned fire the best we could. The enemy fire ceased, and we made arrangements to collect our dead before continuing on to Company A. I was with HHC and 1st Platoon C Company in 70-71. I also was 2/327 B company. John Doever Enemy fire greeted as us as soon as we landed near the village. Not much different than his unit. Our 5th night there, the AMMO area started burning / blowing up. "And in seizing the firm land at the . Correct. I was never formally trained as an RTO. But I made it back in one piece. Amen I was a machine gunner for 7 months 503rd infantry 173rd airborne and you hit the nail right on the head. 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. At that time, an infantry company consisted of about 150 men. All of the next day, we could see SMOKE from the fire caused by the explosions of the AMMO at, the AMMO DUMP. Ambulances are not supposed to be armed (either) though in training, medics are told they and their vehicles will be a prime target. Interesting reading. 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. Together we had passed the test. life expectancy of an infantry soldier in vietnam - lbgf.org Four platoons in a rifle company. This makes calculations of those alive, even in 2017, difficult to maintain. 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). Arthur Parker and Spc. Naturally I was excited at the opportunity to join Sanzone, but at the same time I hated leaving 2nd Platoons No. The three of us had trained together at Fort Lewis and were good friends. Mi hermana se sorprende N-F C-F Cl-F F-F 2 Answers C-F is the most polar. As with much of the Vietnam War, the news media misreported and misinterpreted the 1968 Tet Offensive. by Zita Ballinger Fletcher 1/18/2022. Jimmy aaja, jimmy aaja. 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. We all gotta die sometime, Red. SSgt Barnes, Platoon, its nothing to really concern yourself with, on a long enough time line everyones survival rate is 0%. The U.S. Infantryman Vietnam Pocket Manual contains gems such as infantry "patrol tips," maneuver techniques, and fighting methods for various environments. Please do not send samples. I prayed I would not have to fire over the heads of the 4th Platoon troops entering the draw to retrieve our dead. Two of my classmates were killed within 2 weeks incountry and three wounded I know of. 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? How Many Vietnam Veterans Are Still Alive In 2022? - CLJ Supported by a shoulder strap, No. 2/3 of the men who served in World War II were drafted. 1 gun! Everyone laughed. Veteran Owned Since 1986. Answer (1 of 12): It heavily depends. The casualty rate in the current war today is a fraction. 240 men were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War. The Marine Corps lost 14,836, or 5 percent . It was an honor indeed to serve with some of the finest soldiers I have ever met. S/F, There were no door gunners on dustoffs. So I guess i lasted longer than I was supposed to. Just to show that its hard to get an accurate number, note my typo of 56,220. What were the life expectancies of soldiers during the Vietnam War Sure but so was everyone else who went 12 months without getting killed or wounded. Sure, its softer than it was before, but the training they go through is intense, something a loser who spends his time on the computer all day attacking people he doesnt know anything about and all the facts CANNOT do. DeLong had only fired the weapon once in training, so I let him fire off a few rounds to practice. I, in turn, would take an M16 rifle, which felt like a feather in comparison. What unit lost the most soldiers in Vietnam? The average infantryman in Vietnam saw about 240 days of combat in one year thanks to the mobility of the helicopter. The average age of the 58,148 US Servicemembers killed in Vietnam was . 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). Date: March 8, 2020 Author: pdoggbiker 97 Comments Photo above is of Stanley Kober with RTO, John Scheur. The fact that PDoggbiker cant find any decent calculation/explanation, tells us a lot. I was an Artillery Forward Observer 13F20 E-5 at that time. The CACF is the basis for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (The Wall): Average age of 58,148 killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years. 1 Gun was firing. In your rucksack . Half of the company hopped off the Huey on one side of the river, and the rest exited on the other side. The Army suffered the most total casualties, 38,179 or 2.7 percent of its force. I remember hearing a Lieutenant (Kennedy) say to one of his two platoon RTOs My RTO is Foxtrot Uniform. I did worry about the strength of my flax vest. I want to know what the life expectancy of a us infantry army soldier is. Me molesta que mis padres no ______ (cuidar) su alimentacin.. 3. Also: for years I have read those life-expectancy numbers never really understanding them, but also noting that they wildly vary. We killed a lot of the enemy but we took few serious casualties. Because if only 1 RTO fought for say only 10 or 15 minutes before being killed, that would up the AVG for the total war! Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. Change). Tumbling end over end, the canisters exploded in a white-hot fireball. The early days of May 1970, I arrived at the Airport, next to Saigon. The Australian Vietnam veteran study assessed the postservice mortality of 19 205 Vietnam veterans and 25 677 non-Vietnam veterans through 1981. Before he was drafted Renza had worked as a hairdresser for women in his hometown of Peekskill, New York. 1 Gun over my shoulder, grabbed a corner of a poncho and stumbled off with three other soldiers. Helicopters, F4 fighters. Thank God I made it. 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. Be glad you served with a soldiers soldier like LTC Herbert. Point was the safest place to be,they knew to wait for key elements, RTO, Medica, M60 Gunners. Background [ edit] Photo above is of Stanley Kober with RTO, John Scheur. That same day, I along with 3/4 others was transported to Long Bhin Post. Bob Sanzone. After that initial post-service period, Vietnam veterans were no more likely to die from suicide than non-Vietnam veterans. Life expectancy at birth. What were the life expectancies of soldiers during the Vietnam War? The Vietnam War was the first American war in which Black and White troops were not formally segregated, and even saw significant growth in the number of African Americans engaged in battlefield combat, [1] though some de facto segregation still occurred. For his actions, he was awarded the Congressional Medal if Honor. 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. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star in 1974. 2: role (MOS?). sweep team,then I heard the choppers and they were blowing the hell out in the tree line then it just got so quiet like nothing The Statistics in the Combat Area Casualty File (CACF 11/93) show an average age of death much higher than that of news reports. The Regiment traces its lineage back to World War II. Nobody attacked, where we were. He served as a sergeant with the Big Red One in Lai Khe, Vietnam. He was with the 509th Radio Research Station. I traveled to Fort Lewis, Washington, and trained there for 10 months before deploying to Vietnam as specialist 4. 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. (LogOut/ My assistant gunner and my ammo bearer also carried 300 rounds each. Thats 390 per day. What Was It Like To Hump The Boonies in Vietnam? Fact: The domino theory was accurate. Well, according to current mortality and morbidity statistics for the USright around 77.5 Years! I was one of the many others I rode river boats in the Mekong Jan 68 to 69. From Cam Rahn, we kept flying north to, a Landing Zone near QUANG TRI. 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). For example: 7*x^2. What percentage of Vietnam veterans actually saw combat? HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. Once we turned on the radar they could hit us with a harm missile. Originally I went to the 543d TC. As I was running to the rivers edge, ready to unload on the VC hiding in the elephant grass, I ran past a grass hut and never bothered to clear it. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Address: 9241 13th Ave SW Walked point way to many times but never had contact. He retired in 2012 and lives in Delray Beach, Florida. 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. In Company A, 22 men had been killedadded to the seven killed in Company B. The trailer for that video can be seen by googling the title, and it might still be sold on Amazon. An NVA soldier had evidently spotted the gun and waited patiently for me to stick my head up. Thats why I never understand people talking about survivors guilt it should have been me, why him? etc. waving then I realized they Werent shooting at him only at the well I wonder how long your going to last lieutenant? Their personal income exceeds that of our non-veteran age group by more than 18 percent. we were getting it with machine gun and mortars. Startled, I quickly pointed my M60 at them. I was one of the lucky ones I came home without a physical scratch. 85% of Vietnam Veterans made successful transitions to civilian life. Some unfortunately also came home with physical scars. 1 Gun. Flipping the safety off, I scanned the jungle in front of me. By the time we reached Vietnam in October 1966 I felt the gun had become a part of me. Thanks for posting! 2023 CherriesWriter - Vietnam War website, RTO, John Scheur. I was in 2nd Platoon and carried the platoons No. Was a door gunner and crew chief for just shy of 18 months (I extended to get out early). 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. My second tour was as the S3 for LTC Anthony Herbertone of Americas greatest leaders and WARRIORS OF ALL TIME. 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.)

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