I was with HHC and 1st Platoon C Company in 70-71. Ha Ha always enjoyed being a volunteer! We observed the rules of the Geneva Convention while the bad guys had no interest in doing so. Vietnam War soldiers endured many hardships and faced many problems. I didnt want any medals. 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!! Two of my closest friends in the company, Spc. At Fort Lewis, every recruit learned to operate various weapons. 1 Gun used to kill Americans? This is not Vietnam where a machine gunner's life expectancy was short because you had an entire army shooting at them. The average age of the men killed: 23.1 years. Thanks for the reply. As soon as he did, a round hit him in the forehead, blowing out the back of his skull. 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. Artillery, and ground forces. News media have reported tha an American commander ordered the air strike that burned Kim Phuc.Those are incorrect. The Davis Station in Saigon was named for him. This Battle changed his life and his future, had it not been for his actions, every man on this FSB Gold would have died. 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. The machine gun was also mounted in the UH-1 Huey helicopter and other Army aircraft. One was holding a carbine. I sure feel for all you guys that went outside the wire. Nicknamed "the pig" due to its size, weight and sound, the gun struck fear into enemy troops. 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. 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. I was one of the many others I rode river boats in the Mekong Jan 68 to 69. There were also wounded. The man with the carbine immediately dropped it, and the two VC surrendered. We were like sitting Ducks. The next morning, the blasting could still be, heard. For example, life expectancy of male and female Veterans with household incomes less than $20,000, at respectively. I handled Top Secret Commo on a daily basis. I am one lucky SOB. 2,709,918 Americans served in uniform in Vietnam. 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.) 4 Answers aaja Come. They also had a 12 gauge, and a M 79 grenade launcher and M 16. He retired in 2012 and lives in Delray Beach, Florida. They were glad to see me as it had been a while for replacements with the unit. V. Victor Renza was sent home after he was wounded on May 18, 1967. I look over to Radiomen in the Vietnam War faced a 5-second life expectancy Your article was quite interesting. Correct. It was very nearly my last. I know the scouts in my company had a slightly longer rate but not much. Me molesta que mis padres no ______ (cuidar) su alimentacin.. 3. 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). I had scary thoughts about myself humping the bush as a RTO, I was a real puny guy back then. happened. 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. Remember he wanted to reenlist for one more year in Vietnam. Fact: No American had involvement in this incident near Trang Bang that burned Phan Thi Kim Phuc. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. I always found life expectancy numbers interesting in that I could never find any supporting information that could be validated. Military history of African Americans in the Vietnam War Welcome Home Roger. Our 5th night there, the AMMO area started burning / blowing up. well i have been army infantry for 12 years with 2 deployments, and still going strong. Soldiers from 2nd Platoon, Company C, 87th Infantry Regiment, walk on patrol north of the Long . We used to provide cover for these guys. 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 am 16 years old an 150 pounds qith some good muscle. The battalion was sending us to a village with a small river running through it. Men and women die everyday. 1 Gun was on my hip with the safety off, ready to rock and roll. The casualty rate in the current war today is a fraction. As some said, averages are meaningless. Certainly got my attention. Soldier,this is a wardont forget that, and anytime we are in a fight we will be toughest SOBs in the fight!! It had a crew of 4 (forward gunner, the coxswain (steering and driving) and the two aft gunners. If youre American (which you probably are), I could give a f***. Me, a vehicle mechanic with Btry E, 41st Arty Quads 1970. Got hit inside 15 minutes, first ambush we walked up too. Sure but so was everyone else who went 12 months without getting killed or wounded. An interesting essay, even more interesting are the comments. No. I personally believe and agree with previous posts that when its your time, not much you can do. We killed a lot of the enemy but we took few serious casualties. Combatants on both sides faced physical challenges posed by the climate, terrain and wildlife of the country. I couldnt see DeLong and didnt know if No. I was drafted on Nov. 10, 1965, and assigned to the 4th Infantry Division. I was a REMF but Ive heard of 05Cs that were stuck out in the boonies on a firebase. Bruce Grandstaff and my best friend, Sgt. 10 1/2 months in the bush. ), special forces, combat support, engineering, medics, and vehicle assault weapons. I also was 2/327 B company. Really no mention of the regular rifleman. Life Expectancy of the World Population. I knew some of this, but certainly not all. The 4th Platoon survivors stayed put for the night. 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. Although we do tend to bomb a lot, thats only half of what we do. The Vietnamese pilot who dropped the napalm in error is currently living in the United States. Dont know why, but generally, their aircraft were not armed (door gunners, etc.). Some 23% of Vietnam vets had fathers with professional, managerial 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. Love you Wortman!!!! All that other stuff about seconds and minutes were story tellers, embellishing things to impress some listeners back home. In 1973, Renza opened his own salon in Peekskill. Staying alive was kinda of important. It was more or less next man up . Vietnam Veterans are less likely to be in prison only one-half of one percent of Vietnam Veterans have been jailed for crimes. This article appeared in the October 2021 issue of Vietnam magazine. I had yet to fire a shot with No. BUT WE MUST ALSO BE COGNIZANT OF OUR REQUIREMENT TO BE COMPASSIONATE HUMAN BEINGS. I felt the same way jumping off the chopper with my m-60, 300. rounds of ammo,grenades,sandbags and six canteens of water. I just wanted to get off No. 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. Yes, I made E4 at graduation, that was considered a NCO then. Enter the the Ksp expression forC2D3 in terms of the molar solubility x.? By mid-April 1967 I was pleading with the captain to get a replacement gunner for my M60 in 4th Platoon. Hack volunteered for service in Vietnam in 1968, joining the 1st Infantry Division. 58,148 were killed and 304,000 wounded out of 2.7 million who served. endstream endobj startxref It was an honor indeed to serve with some of the finest soldiers I have ever met. I was never formally trained as an RTO. Walked point way to many times but never had contact. The first man to die in Vietnam was James Davis, in 1961. 1 Gun kept a lot of enemy heads down. I was over there twice serving as a Hospital Corpsman with a marine unit. I think convoy truck drivers had one of the most dangerous job. DeLong had only fired the weapon once in training, so I let him fire off a few rounds to practice. Id had a premonition, and asked the LT to let me trade off to become the AG. Vietnam Veterans were the best educated forces our nation had ever sent into combat. 240 men were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War. 1: physical position (in the field / column) 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. I was an Artillery Forward Observer 13F20 E-5 at that time. Different jobs have different life expectancy. See you in the next life!!!!! We soon learned that the NVA troops were very different from the local guerrillas we had fought around Tuy Hoa. 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.. Every mission, I had the same thought. Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics Mi hermana se sorprende N-F C-F Cl-F F-F 2 Answers C-F is the most polar. Of the . Not long after the artillery barrage ended, the North Vietnamese swept through 4th Platoon and executed some of the survivors. 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. Enemy fire greeted as us as soon as we landed near the village. 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). Mech. Sept 69 to Sept 70. 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. In a strange country scared shitless .I was a minesweeper.My first time out on a mission they put me on the drag line fifty yards from the road which was route 1, Then all hell broke lose The answer that we have always been given is that 1 year in the Infantry is equivalent to 3 years of hard labor. Diaphragm _____ 3. Calculate the pH of a solution of 0.157 M pyridine. . The Organization of the Viet Cong Units in the South never recovered. An NVA soldier had evidently spotted the gun and waited patiently for me to stick my head up. Then the tempo changed suddenly and violently. Some gave all. Forget the statistics, we all had a job to do, we went where we were told. Our chase after the enemy unwittingly led us into a large ambush. Nixon Presidential Papers. 76% of the men sent to Vietnam were from lower middle/working class backgrounds. In January 1967, the 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry, was airlifted to Pleiku province in the Central Highlands. As it was, less than 40 did not need evacuation. Very interesting I carried theM 60 for 5 months that gun would cut down anything. 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. Much smaller income differentials in life expectancy, 0.2 to 3.6 life-years smaller for Veterans in 2010-17 are estimated. The other group of aeromedical evacuation were divisional, i.e. Over the next two months, we exchanged fire with groups of the NVA. Was No. Proudly holding my M60 over my head, I screamed at the top of my lungs, No. 2. It was just part of the job. This makes calculations of those alive, even in 2017, difficult to maintain. See my calculation below in the comments bogus indeed. Or is it on display in a Hanoi museum so curious citizens of that city can inspect a weapon captured from American imperialists? The Bronze Star was awarded to ALL that were awarded the CIB in WWII because the Infantry accounted for over 70% of the casualties in WWLL BUT NOT 70% )F ALL THE INFANTRY !!! Hack received the Purple Heart for major combat injuries, and spent the rest of his military career as a recruiter for the US Army in Akron, Ohio. 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. As I carried a PRC25 radio for over seven-months in the > Nam, I was curious to find out what I did RIGHT to surv >, One MOS I figured was a sure short timer was POL{Fuel} Truck Driver. 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 was shot down on my very first mission in July 1968. located on the South End of, the Post. EACH OF US CARRIES OUR OWN MEMORIES AND THEY RUN THE GAMUT. They were located, next to us, in/on Long Bhin Post. I was an FO back in the day. Great reading. https://open.spotify.com/show/5Th7BCpIKDE1hVTqNL3u0Q. Oh, and even the Air Force has ground units. Life Expectancy by Country and in the World (2023) - Worldometer Foot soldiers went by the grace of God, but had a better chance than the infantry platoon commander in combat. 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. Together we had passed the test. For some reason, the written word of this article was somehow deleted and lost. He was wounded and suffered permanent disability shortly before his tour was up. If it had been up to me, I would have awarded my gun the CIB too. 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. E)V_5lu[vC3+"vg2L& I never even got a shot off. Vietnam War the helicopters that came in to transport soldiers were the hardest hit with mass casualties . The group found the first man killed and carried him up the hill, placing his body right next to me. The American military did not lose a battle of any consequence. How could we lose a war we had already stopped fighting? It was a chaotic nightmare. However, it was the discretion of the individual crewmen if they wanted to carry personal weapons or not. I saw killed and wounded everywhere in our combat operations. I had been shot in the back early in the battle and was lying behind a log with two other soldiers. estimated education differentials in life expectancy for Veterans in 2011-14 are close to those of U. S. population in 1979-89. I watched in horror as four NVA soldiers ambled through the branches of a downed tree that partially concealed us. Some unfortunately also came home with physical scars. An Hinglish word (Hindi/English). Theres 58,276. Lucky you. It began just as, it was getting dark. I was a 2nd Lt. Infantry platoon Leader. What were the life expectancies of soldiers during the Vietnam War A "Sapper" is a combat engineer soldier who is with the front line infantry troops. Our home base was Quang Tri fire Base, But I spent about 6 months out at Mai Loc with the rig. 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!
life expectancy of an infantry soldier in vietnam
life expectancy of an infantry soldier in vietnam
