"Some Interesting Info about Vietnam " Topic

This info is about the Vietnam Wall … nothing political, etc. … just some interesting facts. Like the 1st name listed was KIA in 1956 …

Interesting Veterans Statistics off the Vietnam Memorial Wall

There are 58,267 names now listed on that polished black wall, including those added in 2010.

The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized. It is hard to believe it is 36 years since the last casualties.

The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth , Mass. Listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having been killed on June 8, 1956. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept. 7, 1965.

There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall.

39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger.

8,283 were just 19 years old.

The largest age group, 33,103 were 18 years old.

12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old.

5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old.

One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years old.

997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam ..

1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam ..

31 sets of brothers are on the Wall.

Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their sons.

54 soldiers attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia . I wonder why so many from one school.

8 Women are on the Wall. Nursing the wounded.

244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall.

Beallsville, Ohio with a population of 475 lost 6 of her sons.

West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the nation. There are 711 West Virginians on the Wall.

The Marines of Morenci – They led some of the scrappiest high school football an d basketball teams that the little Arizona copper town of Morenci (pop. 5,058) had ever known and cheered. They enjoyed roaring beer busts. In quieter moments, they rode horses along the Coronado Trail, stalked deer in the Apache National Forest. And in the patriotic camaraderie typical of Morenci's mining families, the nine graduates of Morenci High enlisted as a group in the Marine Corps. Their service began on Independence Day, 1966. Only 3 returned home.

The Buddies of Midvale – LeRoy Tafoya, Jimmy Martinez, Tom Gonzales were all boyhood friends and lived on three consecutive streets in Midvale, Utah on Fifth, Sixth and Seventh avenues. They lived only a few yards apart. They played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. And they all went to Vietnam. In a span of 16 dark days in late 1967, all three would be killed. LeRoy was killed on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the fourth anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Jimmy died less than 24 hours later on Thanksgiving Day. Tom was shot dead assaulting the enemy on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

The most casualty deaths for a single day was on January 31, 1968 ~ 245 deaths.

The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 – 2,415 casualties were incurred.

Something I'll add, about 30,000 Canadians served in the US Military in Vietnam …

Very interesting indeed Legion…thanks for sharing.

Rest In Honored Peace.

My friend who is a Vietnam USAF Vet sent it to me. I'm not sure where he found it. But it follows what I generally know about it.

Thanks for that!

There is some hinky math going on with whoever did the original research.

39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger.

The number is given.

8,283 were just 19 years old.

The largest age group, 33,103 were 18 years old.

12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old.

5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old.

One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years old.

Yet I come up with 41,404 and that doesn't include any 20-22 years old. Somewhere along the line, someone was not good with numbers. I'd hate it if the reaction was that someone felt slighted or left out.

Not sure how they came up with the numbers, but again generally it follows what I have read, heard, etc. …

There is a database somewhere online where you can search this data by various filters.

If they used that then maybe the filters didn't work right or there is a typo somewhere. Easy to make 23000 into 33000 for example.

Taking these basically at face value it is remarkable how young the troops were. I have run across a list of 'facts' online in 2-3 places that try to debunk many of our preconceptions about age, race and social class among those in the military at that time.

It's easy to cherry pick statistics and massage them to give the result you want to get.

For example if you want the KIAs to be older, whiter, richer and better educated you include aviators and KIAs from all years of US involvement.

If you want a blacker/browner/poorer/younger profile you can just count eleven bravos and/or limit your search to the peak combat years.

Efforts seem to have been made at one stage to funnel poor working class blacks into combat units and to reverse this trend later on. This is disputed [of course] but it further muddies the waters whether true or not.

They are still looking for the remains of US KIAs. One was identified and returned home just recently.

Huge numbers of Vietnamese [from both sides] are also still missing of course.

Facts like these bring home the losses felt by families and communities, personalises the bland numbers in the history books.
Thanks for posting.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

There are 58,267 names now listed on that polished black wall, including those added in 2010.

Yes that was stated in my first post. But now in 2020, it may be more.

Good work Legion. I wonder how many should be added from Agent Orange complications?

Wolfhag

Dumb question, but is there a US national monument to those killed in subsequent conflicts, such as various South American/ African/ Mid Eastern/ Afghan conflicts?

The wall is very moving, in a way that so many memorials are not. But most UK local/town/city/even village monuments start with WWI, then you get fresher engravings from WWII and some are then further updated, for all the countless engagements that seemed so important at the time.

Interesting question.

A specific memorial for Afghanistan or Iraq would have several issues. It would be the focus for anti war demonstrations for one thing. Neither war is really over yet and both are clearly not victories.

Also, the 'Wall' memorial was not approved until 1982 – 10 years after the US involvement in Vietnam ended. These things take time.

My preference is for symbolic statues rather than lists of names. Individuals are better remembered by local monuments or naming something after them.

Whether we support the cause they suffered and died for is irrelevant to me. There should be an appropriate memorial of some kind. It seems the very least we can do.

I wonder how many should be added from Agent Orange complications?

Very true plus add suicides, etc. The number would be much larger than that.

At the VA, my Army ROTC Alum gatherings, etc. I have seen and talked to a number of Agent Orange victims. Some were dying from it. Some just suffering from it's ill effects. More horrors from a horrible ill conceived war.

but is there a US national monument to those killed in subsequent conflicts, such as various South American/ African/ Mid Eastern/ Afghan conflicts?

There are a number of state and local monuments to honor all the US losses in all the wars we were involved in. E.g. just locally up the road here, there is a Korean War Memorial. There are number of roads and bridges here named for Vets or Vet groups, i.e. Iraq/Afghan Wars Vets, Women Vets, etc. They are not forgotten locally by their family or other Vets.

It took the US a very long time to even do a National WWII and Korean War Memorial in DC. Which were both fairly recently …

Whether we support the cause they suffered and died for is irrelevant to me. There should be an appropriate memorial of some kind. It seems the very least we can do.

Amen to that. Sadly many Americans don't know or care. It does not have anything to do with them or their family … so why bother ? They can't even list the US Wars or even who and where they were fought. Including the AWI and ACW. The SAW … what was that? It's all very, very, unfortunate …

As a staff member of the local Military Officer's Assoc. of America[MOAA]. We get involved in a lot of Vet affairs and events, etc. Even if we just show up and honor those both living and dead. And many members of our MOAA Chapter are Vietnam Vets. I enjoy talking to them very much.

The Vietnam Memorial Wall has a travelling version. It was at another town near where I live, a few years back. My girlfriend and I went, she is a Vet too as is her son. Photos, names, dates of all those locals that died in that war were posted near the Wall. You could hear family members and friends standing, in wheel chairs, etc., there and talking about their dead son, uncle, etc. A very sobering event.