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. Vietnam War the helicopters that came in to transport soldiers were the hardest hit with mass casualties . So I guess I defied the odds. Without that commitment, Communism would have swept all the way to the Malacca Straits that is south of Singapore and of great strategic importance to the free world. This article appeared in the October 2021 issue of Vietnam magazine. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. 11,465 of those killed were younger than 20 years old. Half of the company hopped off the Huey on one side of the river, and the rest exited on the other side. Anyway I was wondering about the RTOs in a grunt platoon, was that their MOS or were they 11B that carried a PRC ? It was a daily challenge to know who your real enemy was. I pumped 200 rounds into that riverbank. As with much of the Vietnam War, the news media misreported and misinterpreted the 1968 Tet Offensive. Not long after the artillery barrage ended, the North Vietnamese swept through 4th Platoon and executed some of the survivors. Opinion | What a Combat Medic Still Carries - The New York Times They were great patriots fighting for their families and their homeland. One out of every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam was a casualty. By mid-April 1967 I was pleading with the captain to get a replacement gunner for my M60 in 4th Platoon. Im laying behind a rice paddie dike.I put my whole body as far down in the muck while the bullets were over my head. Deltoid muscle _____ 2. aND, mAY GOD BLESS AMERICA!!! After about 30 minutes, the four enemy soldiers got up and left the area. Contents1 [] Data based on the latest United Nations Population Division estimates. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Address: 9241 13th Ave SW There were no Americans involved in any capacity. Most of us have memories of these kind of experiences. African Americans played a prominent role in the Vietnam War. As we approached the battle, we heard intense firing. They also struggled with logistical problems and the complex political situation in Vietnam. 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. 2. Gotta say I think you hit it on the nose. I spent 10 1/2 months in the jungles of Vietnam. Michael Doolittle..I was with 1/8 inf, 1st Brigade, and that day, March 22nd was also our darkest day. For example, life expectancy of male and female Veterans with household incomes less than $20,000, at respectively. Like you, I carried a PRC-25 for about 5 months and never got hit. Then we all, loaded on C-147 cargo planes. Nevertheless, I swung No. They kept coming up the hill bringing more bodies to me until all seven had been found. Prayers for all. What is the life expectancy of an army infantry soldier? I just wanted to get off No. I think those numbers are percentages of US KIA, not mortality times. What was the average life expectancy of a soldier in World War II? 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. 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? My dog and I walked point my whole tour in Vietnam. Much smaller income differentials in life expectancy, 0.2 to 3.6 life-years smaller for Veterans in 2010-17 are estimated. I was told to help carry one of the bodies. Over the next two months, we exchanged fire with groups of the NVA. 15 May he was killed by friendly fire, and a host of us were WIA, myself included. 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. Life Expectancy by Country and in the World (2023) - Worldometer In that time 4 us kia and 4 wounded. Dap, Hope this helps. where can i find red bird vienna sausage? Our 5th night there, the AMMO area started burning / blowing up. He said when they were ambushed they took defensive positions, returned fire, called for assistance when needed, and retreated when necessary. Proudly holding my M60 over my head, I screamed at the top of my lungs, No. 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! 1 Gun became my very best friend. Great reading. When we reached Company A, we placed our dead in the center of the two-company perimeter. Correct. No. How many soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam? - 2023 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. Carrying a dead man some 300 yards through thick jungle in 100-degree heat was extraordinarily difficult. Nothing could be further from the truth. 3 Answers C5H5N in water > C5H5NH+ & OH- Kb = [C5H5NH+] [OH-] / [C5H5N] 1.5e-9 = [x] 1. Totally bogus. I packed my own radio and got a Thank you from his Mom. I had to rely on my gun more than before. At that time, an infantry company consisted of about 150 men. V. Victor Renza was sent home after he was wounded on May 18, 1967. The one that should be there is the combat medic. 4314 0 obj <> endobj Thanks for posting! I carried the proc 26 radio after I was asked by my field 1st ( E 7 ) if I would for my platoon . 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. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. As we were, steadily building up, our area for protection. 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. In my tour everyone had the same chance of getting shot. That means you lose five RTOs in 5 seconds. I was one of the lucky ones I came home without a physical scratch. We had run patrols for about a month when I first saw action. The blasts from the AMMO, really lit up the whole area. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. Shermans had fairly thin armor (76mm at the thickest compared to a Tiger with 180mm at the thickest with most around 100mm). In January 1967, the 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry, was airlifted to Pleiku province in the Central Highlands. 1 Gun had registered its first kill. 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. (Although 58,169 names are in the Nov. 93 database, only 58,148 have both event date and birth date. (Getty Images) Most war stories are about soldiers and battles. On average US troops served 1-2 years in Vietnam, and the percentage of troops killed was actually fairly low for a war this size, 2.14% of all who served were killed, the life expectancy was roughly around 1 year, 5 months and 3 weeks (taking into account the 1-2 year difference in some troops's serving times) Sponsored by Primal Labs The fall of Saigon happened 30 April 1975, two years AFTER the American military left Vietnam. 58,148 were killed and 304,000 wounded out of 2.7 million who served. 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. The man listed as missing was machine gunner Joe DeLong, captured along with No. They have a lower unemployment rate than the same non-vet age groups. Was the 7th Infantry in Vietnam? - 2023 Once we turned on the radar they could hit us with a harm missile. No. Really? If youre American (which you probably are), I could give a f***. 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. Flipping the safety off, I scanned the jungle in front of me. It may not have worked for some other wars, but they were pretty helpful. 1 Gun before my luck ran out. US Wings provides aviation apparel to the U.S. Government and commercial customers along with the general public. Calculate the pH of a solution of 0.157 M pyridine. 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." 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? As a point of reference, Patterson explained that combat troops in World War II, on average, spent 36 days in a combat environment; the average infantryman in Vietnam spent 245 days in constant. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. 4322 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[<4E412331B845E54EBDFDC79FA0627A18>]/Index[4314 16]/Info 4313 0 R/Length 65/Prev 560501/Root 4315 0 R/Size 4330/Type/XRef/W[1 3 1]>>stream After a quick lesson, DeLong became the new owner of 4th Platoons No.1 Gun. Hi, the whole thing is going nicely here and ofcourse every one well I wonder how long your going to last lieutenant? Of the . Just published my book The Last Goodbye by John Fratangelo, available on line on Barnes and Noble and Amazon Prime Books, Getting great reviews. 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. 99% of infantry men will currently live to die of natural causes. My bud, Price took over as RTO. 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 Saw from mostly safe distance almost all the weapons systems that where there used. Amazingly, the NVA men then walked a short distance away, sat down and ate lunch. 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. A Co, 1/5 Cav, 1 Cav Division. One was holding a carbine. Thats my experience. 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. I was in the AF a Reo in a F4-C. Who had time to worry about the life Out of thousands of men that invaded that town in southern Afghanistan, we have lost 19. 79% had a high school education or better. I traveled to Fort Lewis, Washington, and trained there for 10 months before deploying to Vietnam as specialist 4. I always felt that Infantry units were in more danger because of ambush issues and no permanent defensive structures. 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. How could we lose a war we had already stopped fighting?