The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". According to the Department of Defense, infantry soldiers had the highest casualties during the Vietnam War, making infantry the deadliest job in Vietnam. How Many B 52S Were Shot Down During The Vietnam War? Home Kent State University How Many Vietnam Veterans Are Still Alive In 2022? The number of people who are Vietnam veterans in the first place is a number that is widely debated. I WOULD SURVIVE! Thank you. Almost 1500 died their last day. There were 7 RoyalThai Air Force bases used during the war, from 1961-1975, three closed between 1972 to 1973. My left leg hurt like HELLFIRE! 1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam. We hauled cargo to the bases and for a few months I hauled hitest gas to the airbase at DongHa. If my math is correct, are you going on 68 years old ? If we dont include forces in Thailand or Guam why are we including anyone except Navy pilots, because I dont remember any deep water people who were subjected to enemy hostilities. as we end our lives we should never forget that each served, in some way. I was confused. These Veterans are now in or about to reach their 80's. How many Vietnam vets . So, nearly 300,000 over the 14 years of their operations, a far cry above the 2500-3000 referenced in the article. Having studied the war for years, I believe that the correct figure for those on the ground in South Vietnam is 2.6 million. it really did not matter, every officer had a masters license. If you fired a weapon in defense, outside the wire,, and your boots were on the ground in VN you are a COMBAT vet. Alice, my sister lost hers in Oct 2020 from throat cancer due to agent Orange. We were sprayed every 2 weeks with Melithon (Insecticide) that was 96 percent pure. At 73 years, I plan on beating that date. In my mirror I saw its beam illuminate each and every particle of dust that my passing vehicle spewed into the air; thus creating a mobile, magical, camouflaged chamber of brightly dancing fairies shielding me from harm. The average ww ii vet was in combat 10 to 12 days. You may not care but us guys that stepped foot in Nam AND had bullets flying at us, we care, and we are genuine vietnam Combat Vets. Yes, there are fuckyou lizards. (Crew Chief 1970-71) 25 AVN 25 INF (1971-72) C/16 CAV. So, when we talk about Vietnam vets who are living or dead, we should be talking STRICTLY about Vets who participated in the Vietnam War. The last combat veteran was Claude Choules, who served in the British Royal Navy (and later the Royal Australian Navy) and died 5 May 2011, aged 110. My name is Ananda. I spent 3 separate tours in Vietnam. If you want to learn more about the Vietnam War and its Warriors, then subscribe to this blog and get notified by email or your feed reader every time a new story, picture, video or changes occur on this website the button is located at the top right of this page. Welcome home! But that number will probably go down by at least 50,000 to 75,000 per year. He is absolutely obsessed with military and different men who have served, The definitive statistics come from the VAs Million Vietnam Vets database, which will continue until we are all gone. Also, some do not consider those who served in Thailand as Vietnam Vets. one of the ships i sailed on had a captain that was drunk for 5 months. Dave V. 1st Battalion, 14 th FA, Americal Division, VN, I Corps. My uncle John was in Company A, 290th Engineer Combat Bn during WWII. Not sure what to think about the article. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. I know . I shipped to RVN on the USNS Geiger, manned by Merchant Marines, leaving Tacoma, WA on June 30, 1967 and arriving in Vung Tau on July 21, 1967. I will never forget the pop pop pop, pop pop of an AK-47 in rapid-fire, but I heard the far off rattle of a M-60 machine-gun through the roar; Why I thought of PFC Wildaboro and his escapade with the machine gun that OTHER sun-drenched afternoon! Thank you..Its been many years sinice I left, needed answers, read the 1987 pulitzer prize book on Vietnam, A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan, and later Secrets by Daniel Ellsberg a Marine who worked at the pentagon cable room.both left me so shaken I couldnt finishe either but Ilearned so much. Vietnam IS a Vietnam veteran. I have read about Canadians coming south to fight in Vietnam but have never seen any real authority to support this. The disparity seems to be In Theatre veterans between the years 1954-1975, and veterans in the Military at that time that were not deployed, or NOT In Theatre! This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The New York Times, as always, gets it wrong. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. We just hoped the pilot put us where we were supposed to be. If they enlisted or were drafted before 1975, they likely are in their late 60s now. What Major Is Kent State University Known For? How Many Vietnam War Veterans Are Still Alive? Every single day 22 veterans commit themselves to death. I was in Nam in 1968 and 1969 as a combat Marine. I agree with the rest of your post, and so did the Army. I believe the aircrews flying out of those places were take issue with not in harms way. In 11 days of December 1973, 16 B-52s were lost over North Vietnam during Linebacker II. Why cant you be just a proud Veteran. I opted for love! He now has a 100% disability as unemployable. One sapper shot off a whole magazine of armor piercing bullets at the drivers side windshield of the truck, and glass was flying in all directions. A veteran who served in the Vietnam War would be in their early 70s to late 90s today, depending on their birth year. I would not believe the NYT. Things that they did not tell you. Enjoy today's Memorial Day and please take time to "Remember". Your numbers are way off on the number of Air Force personnel serving in Thailand during the Vietnam war. I do not like pretenders but do not want to take on the duty of Valor Police. We havent forgotten that time of our lives, and remember full well, that most of these ERA Vets joined these other branches in a desperate attempt to avoid service in Vietnam. The number of Viet Nam veterans, those who served in combat and combat related services (such those flyboys from outside the territory/waters of Viet Nam is about 2.7 million. Alternatively, to transfigure my destiny. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. I changed emails and cant reach you!! How many vietnam veterans are still living. Fact: Everyone who served during the Vietnam War are classified as Vietnam Era Vets. Got a nice break the last 5 months, got to drive a bird colonel around Chu Lai as he delivered classified info all over the base !!!!! It was difficult for me to move. Just come up with two lists and leave it at that. Anyone who says you guys werent there will have to fight me. The total goes up every day. RVN. Other than guard duty i was not in combat but the perimeter at Long Binh was regular defoliated and we experienced rocket and mortar attacks. When you spend most of the time out in the Bad Lands, bad things happen. As a Combat Infantry Veteran those who allow people to assume that they experienced actual combat because they refer to themselves as a Vietnam Vet. I knew what my death would mean to my mother, my father, and the rest of my family and friends. Dave, I salute all Veterans, and those Pencil pusher, clerks, medics, fire-fighters, etc., all had jobs to do to support everyone, they deserve respect as well, as without them no one should have had the tools necessary to accomplish any mission! Aside from that, I have always doubted any fact stated by the NY Times; although the federal government is no better. Im glad you made it back! Bob Kerrey. I was at 6 different LZs from Aug 67-Aug 68, with a 4th Medical Battalion aid station (D Company), and I never heard of a fuck you lizard. This answer is: Dec. 5, 1967 to April 28, 1968 is 144 days. In the article, the writer quotes Patrick S. Brady of Vietnam Veterans of Americas magazine. Its possible that the youngest living Vietnam Veteran may be 61 years old. Whether you were sprayed or not makes no difference, and YOU ARE NOT required to prove anything other than being present in Vietnam. All I know is that Im a Vietnam Combat Vet. Everyone that served and was in combat which means they were in the line of fire (received it and returned it in some form or fashion) deal with their dark side in various ways. OUR COMPANY STARTED LONG BINH COMPOUND IN SEPT OF 1965, DALLAS WATERFILL EMAIL dallaswaterfill@yahoo.com, Was in Vietnam Dec. 1968 to Dec. 1969, Phan Rang AFB, RVN. If you assumed that 500,000 new troops served there every year from 1962-1975, you still couldnt get to 9,000,000 serving there, so using the peak number is not realistic. There are still a lot of us left by some miracle! Our side would have collapsed without you. So, where is the discrepancy in these numbers? i was a merchant marine officer, technically a civilian. I agree Vietnam vets are fewer. I could type and did all the reports. Lets ask somebody on Facebook where we can get all the correct true data and facts. 45-50 years from now (and I bet no-one will want to These numbers were not included since these service members were far removed from combat experience and did not spend any amount of time in harms way. Are we counted as two people or have they accounted for us already. We did a lot of Ranch Hand missions in the iron Triangle. 1st cav div. The group in my AIT Class were all happy about this. At this rate there will be only a few of us alive in 2015. All who served In Country and the those outlying areas in support should be considered Vietnam Vets. Please respond! We all bleed red. However, he did not return to the United States until March 22, 1979. Air medals say combat support flying night spook missions around Haiphong from 68 -71. According to the Pentagons Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, there are currently 83,204 unaccounted for U.S. personnel, including 73,547 from World War II, 7,883 from the Korean War, 126 from the Cold War, 1,642 from the Vietnam War, and six from Iraq and other recent conflicts, including three Defense. Very helpful for this Viet Nam vet, at 73 and a little long in the tooth I I find that my understanding of the time I spent in Viet Nam comes into sharper focus as time goes by and the reality of what happened and what I did to participate makes me proud especially because I volunteered for Viet Nam at the age of 17. He never did ,Thank god ,because I ended up marrying a beautiful woman and we have the most precious and beautiful daughter. The way many of us were treated on returning from that war, but in truth it was only a war for very few of those who served there. take a look at my article titled a pale smoke google it . The VVA Veteran boils it down to a totally different conclusion that the American War Library drew. we got one daily the other one weekly. Today, the state with highest number of Vietnam veterans is California, with 596,130, followed by Florida with 519,224. There was a huge difference between the merchant ships i sailed on, no passengers, and vessels like usns geiger. Did your foot ever touch the ground? Approximately 7,500 women were stationed in Vietnam during the war. It is a deeply troubling statistic and has. He showed me his DD214 and low and behold it says he was in Vietnam. One of the things that really bothers me is the statement that we lost in Vietnam? The New York Times estimated that, of the 8.4 million Vietnam veterans who were still alive in 2000, 1.1 million had died. Deaths per day . The New York Times reported that claims like those of the American War Library are false and that, instead of only one-third of Vietnam vets remaining, the number points to more like 75 percent of Vietnam veterans still living and breathing today.
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