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.. 1 Gun was on my hip with the safety off, ready to rock and roll. Saw from mostly safe distance almost all the weapons systems that where there used. 4314 0 obj <> endobj Joe DeLong joined the company, and Sholly informed me that he would be the M60 gunner. The Australian Vietnam veteran study assessed the postservice mortality of 19 205 Vietnam veterans and 25 677 non-Vietnam veterans through 1981. The trailer for that video can be seen by googling the title, and it might still be sold on Amazon. I never even got a shot off. 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. Rules may have changed, I was in the Delta region. I remember we were always short of replacements throughout 1968 because of the high Kia & wounded rate we suffered at that time ! Date: March 8, 2020 Author: pdoggbiker 97 Comments Photo above is of Stanley Kober with RTO, John Scheur. Roger Loves you too, Im sure. Of those killed, 61% were younger than 21 years old. 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. The U.S. Army Infantryman Vietnam Pocket Manual Review - HistoryNet Ordered to reinforce the unit, the Company B commander put our four platoons abreast of each other, and we marched west. He served as a sergeant with the Big Red One in Lai Khe, Vietnam. In total, the 7th Infantry spent four years in Vietnam. Bruce Grandstaff and my best friend, Sgt. You were a Great RTO. A "Sapper" is a combat engineer soldier who is with the front line infantry troops. Some 23% of Vietnam vets had fathers with professional, managerial I think convoy truck drivers had one of the most dangerous job. I never thought of it that way before but have many times since. Very memorable comments. We fought to an agreed stalemate. Completa las oraciones con la forma correcta del presente de subjuntivo de los verbos entre parntesis.? Stop staring at your computer already, get up. In Vietnam 70% 0f the casualties were Infantry BUT it might be 70% of ALL the Infantry that served in Vietnam. I had a 20% death rate in my Hospital Corpsman Class. Me, a vehicle mechanic with Btry E, 41st Arty Quads 1970. I was stationed on 2 FSBs (8 & 175mm guns) west of Tay Ninh on the Cambodian boarder in the Ho Chi Minh trail and was wounded but nothing as bad as he was. July 68 to July 69. I think those numbers are percentages of US KIA, not mortality times. Database. El subjuntivo We were probably not too far away on that day. On Sun, Mar 8, 2020 at 4:00 PM CherriesWriter Vietnam War website wrote: > pdoggbiker posted: A friend recently sent me the link to an article > claiming that the life expectancy of a radio operator in the Vietnam War > was only 5 seconds. I too never understood survivor quilt, Enjoyed your article. 1 Gun used to kill Americans? While traveling through the boonies the first few men were usually always shot first. C Co, 1st-12th 66-67. I always was told that the life expectancy of a LT was 14 seconds in INITIAL combat versus 9 seconds for an RTO. I spent 10 1/2 months in the jungles of Vietnam. My shit got weak and a sniper popped three rounds in my young ass. We were very, lucky. AS LEADERS IN AMERICAS SERVICES WE MUST BE PROFICIENT AND READY TO ACCOMPLISH OUR MISSIONS- What is the life expectancy of an army infantry soldier? The oldest man killed was 62 years old. I would suspect that stating with any accuracy the life span of a grunt like me, or any other MOS, would be pretty much pure speculation. Approximately 70% of those killed in Vietnam were volunteers. I've never heard about the life expectancy of 6 weeks (even with a short google search). Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Love you Wortman!!!! Spanish Help Still shaken, I grabbed the gun and crawled to the left inside the streambed. One out of every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam was a casualty. Seattle, Washington(WA), 98106. 87% of Americans hold Vietnam Veterans in high esteem. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_losses_of I want to know what the life expectancy of a us infantry army soldier is. Then one hot, sunny day, while walking across rice paddies, we suddenly received small-arms fire from Viet Cong in some distant hills. Now, to calmly answer your question, air strikes have actually been an efficient technique used by us for years now. (Getty Images) Most war stories are about soldiers and battles. 1 Gun more than I did. 4 Paul Domke, who carried extra belts of ammo and fed them into the gun. Your email address will not be published. 1 Gun, as always, thumped out a throaty roar as I fought desperately to push the enemy back. Both served in A 2/18 1st Infantry Division. Quickly learned to control rate of fire. Expenditures for a body in a combat zone? We are a woman-owned small business and Veteran-owned incorporated in Ohio. The other group of aeromedical evacuation were divisional, i.e. (LogOut/ 11,465 of those killed were younger than 20 years old. The rule of thumb was , any new guys would get the radio and keep it until another new guy came in. Does this mean addressing to a crowd? If my memory is correct, only the 1st Cab flew wiith doorgunners. I was also told that the Radio did put a target on my back. From the Landing Zone, we were carried not too far. We do have infantry (why do you think we have that MOS? 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. Vietnam veterans' personal income exceeds that of our non-veteran age group by more than 18 percent. 1ST MAW 66-68. 2,709,918 Americans served in uniform in Vietnam. By mid-April 1967 I was pleading with the captain to get a replacement gunner for my M60 in 4th Platoon. As we were, steadily building up, our area for protection. I saw killed and wounded everywhere in our combat operations. The average time lapse between wounding to hospitalization was less than one hour. So I guess I defied the odds. As of the current Census taken during August, 2000, the surviving U.S. Vietnam Veteran population estimate is: 1,002,511. Ambulances are not supposed to be armed (either) though in training, medics are told they and their vehicles will be a prime target. 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). And I know what youre going to say, Because the American cs! Bullcrap!!!! Was I lucky ? All of the next day, we could see SMOKE from the fire caused by the explosions of the AMMO at, the AMMO DUMP. I personally believe and agree with previous posts that when its your time, not much you can do. Contents1 [] I was an Artillery Forward Observer 13F20 E-5 at that time. How old are Vietnam vets now? 4 Answers aaja Come. What were the life expectancies of soldiers during the Vietnam War Different type units, different locations, different opinions on dangers. 4 Bill May and Spc. A former expert with the M60 machine gun shares his experiences wielding the fearsome weapon in Vietnam. No creo que Susana _____ (seguir) sobre los consejos de su mdico. He also worked on Jacqueline Kennedys hair pieces and wigs. Shea's gallantry in action at the cost of his life were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon . If it had been up to me, I would have awarded my gun the CIB too. The jungle seemed to want No. happened. The key may be the word initial since we became more savvy with successive combats and had improved survivability. Look for the blue accessibility symbol floating on every page of our website and click on it to tailor your viewing experience to your particular disability. 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 There were two different groups that flew aeromedical evacuations. Carrying a dead man some 300 yards through thick jungle in 100-degree heat was extraordinarily difficult. I was told my life expectancy was about 45 secs during a fire fight because of the weapons and demo I carried. Interesting but something is missing. They were great patriots fighting for their families and their homeland. They kept coming up the hill bringing more bodies to me until all seven had been found. I am proud to have fought alongside of them. I handled Top Secret Commo on a daily basis. In Vietnam, 1 in 400 of the wounded died of their . 58,148 were killed and 304,000 wounded out of 2.7 million who served. 99% of infantry men will currently live to die of natural causes. HOOAH!!! Day in the life of a Vietnam Soldier | History 118: US History Since 1877 We had one RTO killed because he was too close to a 2ND Lt, same thing happened to another RTO. I was over there twice serving as a Hospital Corpsman with a marine unit. 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. then youd carry an extra 200 rounds of M60 ammo for the machine gunner , plus drag grenades , one smoke grenade plus etc. But I made it back in one piece. Bloody May 1968 Mini TET. Life expectancy at birth. 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). As mentioned, who kept track of that in the first place? Never knew they had life expectancy stats. Sociologists Charles C. Moskos and John Sibley Butler, in their recently published book All That We Can Be, said they analyzed the claim that blacks were used like cannon fodder during Vietnam and can report definitely that this charge is untrue. Anyway I was wondering about the RTOs in a grunt platoon, was that their MOS or were they 11B that carried a PRC ? Some very close calls but I am alive at age 74. Sholly injured an ankle, and 1st Lt. Cary Allen took command of Company B. We were told in training that the life expectancy of a machine gunner was about seven seconds from the moment the first round was fired. How many draftees died in Vietnam? - 2023 As a result, less than one percent of all Americans wounded, who survived the first 24 hours, died. estimated education differentials in life expectancy for Veterans in 2011-14 are close to those of U. S. population in 1979-89. No. Everyone in the company hit the dirt. Staying alive was kinda of important. 1 Gun. I was a grunt with c co. 4/31 196th it inf bade. We can all hold our heads high and be proud of our service. Learned a lot from him. endstream endobj 4315 0 obj <>/Metadata 89 0 R/Pages 4312 0 R/StructTreeRoot 120 0 R/Type/Catalog>> endobj 4316 0 obj <>/MediaBox[0 0 612 792]/Parent 4312 0 R/Resources<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI]/XObject<>>>/Rotate 0/StructParents 0/Tabs/S/Type/Page>> endobj 4317 0 obj <>stream 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! This is not Vietnam where a machine gunner's life expectancy was short because you had an entire army shooting at them. 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. Every single . I had been shot in the back early in the battle and was lying behind a log with two other soldiers. Five RTOs. Five men killed in Vietnam were only 16 years old. Or is it on display in a Hanoi museum so curious citizens of that city can inspect a weapon captured from American imperialists? But it was my jobso I tried not to think about it much. Every mission, I had the same thought. %%EOF US Wings is a veteran-owned business and an official supplier to the US Military. Vietnam Veterans were the best educated forces our nation had ever sent into combat. First Sgt. Before he was drafted Renza had worked as a hairdresser for women in his hometown of Peekskill, New York. Your article was quite interesting. I was a REMF but Ive heard of 05Cs that were stuck out in the boonies on a firebase. We then took all Trucks and equipment to the Port Of Saigon. Flipping the safety off, I scanned the jungle in front of me. I will always think/say, we had absolutely no reason for being in that place. At Fort Lewis, every recruit learned to operate various weapons. Certainly got my attention. As I made it back to the road I remember seeing the Company A searched in vain for the platoon in the dark and finally found the shattered unit on the morning of May 19. . In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. Although we do tend to bomb a lot, thats only half of what we do. Bravo, 3/187th Inf, 101st Airborne Div, 2nd Plt, 2nd Sq, Hamburger Hill, May 69. Like most inexperienced gunners, he underestimated the power of the pig and failed to keep the barrel down when firing. I was constantly untangling the barrel and bipod of the gun from grasping vines and branches. I am 16 years old an 150 pounds qith some good muscle. Life Expectancy of the World Population. Life Expectancy by Country and in the World (2023) - Worldometer 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?
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