The Army lost the greatest number of officers 4,635 or 59 percent of all officer casualties. The widely held notion that the poor served and died in Vietnam while the rich stayed home is way off the mark. World War II had been, for the most part, a perfect war, clear of purpose, the forces of democracy and freedom lined up against the forces of fascism and tyranny. Vietnam War Casualties- Main Alphabetical Index www.VirtualWall.org Find A Name Information Memorial pages honoring Vietnam War casualties, listed by their last names. Only 5 to 10 percent of enlisted men in the combat units were estimated to have had some college, and less than 1 percent of these enlisted men were college graduates. Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund | 3033 Wilson Blvd, Suite 300 | Arlington VA 22201 | 202.393.0090 They were at their peak physically. I could tell you about how real the fear was that I felt, since from the time we crossed the Delta and made the run into Saigon, we were over enemy territory. Thus we can see that the channeling philosophy continued within the armed forces. peruse. There is some truth to this, but it is instructive to look at what the DOD database reveals in terms of race, ethnicity, national origin, religious preference and casualties by U.S. geographic areas. Thus, the wars beginning and end meet. Instead its nearly in the center. Copies of WWII though Vietnam era (men born April 28, 1877 to March 28, 1957) Selective Service Records may be obtained from the National Personnel Records Center, in St. Louis, for a fee. Ziomek's name was finally inscribed on the Washington memorial on Sept. 15, 2020; he was one of just three veterans added in 2020. As of 2017, there are 58,318 names inscribed on The Wall. VVMF does not have the authority to overrule those who adjudicate these matters. However, in 1980, President James E. Carter resumed Selective Service registration in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. November 11, 1982. A doctor arrived and gave his shaken mother a sedative. In the event a service members remains are returned or accounted for, then a diamond symbol is engraved over the plus sign. Twenty years passed before Vandegeers remains were identified and another five passed before his funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. The Air Force lost the highest percentage of officers. Those who could have qualified for college probably did not have the funds or motivation. He admitted no particular feelings about the righteousness of the war, and allowed himself to look ahead into a future free of war and obligation. On the other end of that phone call was an former Air Force officer who had served in Vietnam. The vision of VVMF is to ensure a society in which all who have served and sacrificed in our nation's Armed Forces are properly honored and receive the recognition they justly deserve. Its been more than 20 years since Forrest Gump debuted on the silver screen and nearly a generation later, its characters still resonate with todays service members. In addition, millions of documents had been lent to the Department of Veterans Affairs before the fire occurred. Doubek was tasked with identifying all of the names to be included on the Wall. . The ship had been taken to the island of Koh Tang. At the time, approximately 1,300 names were designated as servicemen who were either missing or prisoners of war. Note the panel and line number for the name listed. What will be the evolving historical judgment for those names on the Wall? The names of those who gave their lives and of those who remain missing are inscribed in the order they were taken from us. The names of those who gave their lives and of those who remain missing are inscribed in the order they were taken from us. Buis can be found at the top middle of a slab designated Panel 1E. The panel numbers are inscribed at the bottom of each panel. Nursing the wounded. These files are lists of the names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, listed in chronological order of the casualty date and then alphabetical by last name within a given date. It is more notable, perhaps, only because his was the first name engraved into The Wall. They also died quickly, many within a few weeks or months of arriving in Vietnam. The Vietnam Wall. Since its controversial beginnings, feelings toward the Vietnam Veterans Memorial have changed drastically. He accepted the tradition of military service passed on to him by the popular culture and by President John F. Kennedys ringing words, Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial stands as a symbol of America's honor and recognition of the men and women who served and sacrificed their lives in the Vietnam War. This was long before the advent of integrated computer databases. Beallsville, Ohio with a population of 475 lost 6 of her sons. Photo credit DOD photo by Army Sgt. If a person died or went missing in those areas, DoD considered that individual to be a combat zone casualty and eligible for inclusion on the Wall. A few years after the dedication, the issue of geographic criteria was expanded by DoD to include people who had been killed outside of the war zone while on or in support of direct combat missions. By and large, with the exception of the officer corps, most of the college bound and educated skipped the Vietnam War at the urging of, and with the approval of, their own government. They were struggling through or dropping out of high school, or if a high school graduate, had tested poorly for college entrance. It would also enable veterans to find groups of friends who died during the same incident. About 58 thousand of the 7 million American service men and women who served in Vietnam died. Most of the young American enlisted men who served in Vietnam were not college prospects at the time they entered the service. This year, 14 names were etched into the wall. No duplicate copies of the records that were destroyed in the fire were maintained, nor was a microfilm copy ever produced. This, they felt, would offer these men the opportunity to get remedial training in the service and then be able to compete successfully when they returned to civilian life. Additionally, many of the names on the wall were other teenagers from the suburban white collar communities with siblings who were in, or would go on to college, but who, as individuals themselves, were slow to mature, struggled through high school and were therefore very available for the Vietnam War. By his estimate, he helped pull out close to 2,000 people. The VC had commandeered Air America Hueys, and they were flying them around, which simply made for a very interesting chess game. Search the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s database of names on the wall. If a service member were to return alive, a circlethe symbol of lifewould be inscribed around the plus sign. The DOD database shows that of the 2,100,000 men and women who served in Vietnam, 58,152 were killed. This is close to, but not exactly in the same order The Marine Corps losses were skewed even more to the lower ranks, 91 percent were privates or corporals. This approach would allow veterans, friends and family members to find a loved one by his or her date of casualty. The casual visitor might not immediately recognize that Buis name is the first. Beside each name is a symbol that denotes a service members status: either missing or confirmed dead. All of this was one of the great and abiding agonies of the Vietnam War, causing repercussions within families and on the national political scene to this day. And they all went to Vietnam. COL LEWIS HERBERT ABRAMS SSG SAMUEL ABRAMS Jr PFC TIMOTHY C ABRAMS Jr WO ANDREW JOHN ABRAMSON CPL MIGUEL A ABREU-BATISTA Jr SP4 ANTHONY JOSEPH ABRUZESE PFC ROBERT ALEXANDER ABRUZESE PFC MICHAEL JOHN ABRUZZESA Jr SGT WILLIAM WALLACE ABSHEAR SGT RICHARD FRANKLIN ABSHIRE PFC JAMES ESTUS ABSTON Jr SSG ROBERT JOSEPH ACALOTTO SP5 PEPITO RIVERA ACERET The Reading of the Names is an in-person event where every single name on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is read in order of which it appears on The Wall. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated on November 10, 1982, with 57,939 names. The index gives birth and death dates, country of death, cause of death (air, ground, or sea), town and state of residence at time of enlistment, race, religious affiliation, marital status, service number, rank, and branch of service. This page was last edited on 12 December 2022, at 18:28. In many of these families it was considered unpatriotic and indeed reprehensible to avoid active duty by requesting a status deferment or seeking out a draft counselor for advice on how to avoid the draft. The directories are organized alphabetically by last name. However, there have been no such cases. If each Another browser may inform you that it does not know how to display the file Names can also be located on The Wall of Faces on VVMFs web site, www.vvmf.org/wall-of-faces, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund | 3033 Wilson Blvd, Suite 300 | Arlington VA 22201 | 202.393.0090 The trigger came when the recruiters pointed out that the volunteer could enlist as early as 17 (with parental consent); that he was allowed to select his branch of service; that he would receive specialized training if he qualified; that he could request a specific overseas assignment; and that his three year enlistment followed by three years in the inactive reserves satisfied his military obligation immediately. On the stencil printouts, each line contained five names per row. Charles Holley; chief editor, Robert J. Martin, 4th Infantry Division. Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their sons. The training for American officers is thought by most foreign military authorities to be the best in the world. And there is an end. Honoring the men and women who served in the controversial Vietnam War, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial chronologically lists the names of 58,318 Americans who gave their lives in service to their country. 12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old. compiled by Military Records and Research Library, Department of Military Affairs; edited by Julia D. Rather and Jeffrey Michael Duff, Research Our Records. As Vandegeer piloted his CH-53 helicopter toward the island, a wall of anti-aircraft fire knocked it from the sky, and it crashed toward the water with 26 men aboard. ARMY AND MARINE OFFICER CASUALTIES BY RANK AND AGE. EIN: 52-1149668, Copyright 2023 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display. But you had stories of guys in the Air Force who would die in their aircraft over Thailand after having been shot over Vietnam. Technically, they were ineligible for inclusion on the Wall. An Air Force member, with his back to the camera, holds the POW/MIA flag during a full honors funeral for Air Force Second Lieutenant Richard Vandegeer at Arlington National Cemetery on October 27, 2000. Buis died, as did Army Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand, whose name is second on the wall. This is close to, but not exactly in the same order as the names on the Wall. Only 10 percent of enlisted men had even some college to their credit and only 1 percent were college graduates. Fully 50 percent were in the 17- to 24-year age group, and astonishingly, there were 764 Army officer casualties who were 21 or younger. The ceremony is held on Mothers Day and the additions might be as simple as rectifying a clerical error or as heartbreaking as a veteran dying, all these years later, from a wound suffered during the war. Learn more about featured topics of the Vietnam War and Vietnam Era. 1970 - ca. The chronological order allows veterans who were in a battle to see their friends forever united on the Wall, he explained. The black granite walls are engraved with the names of more than 58,000 men and women who laid down their lives or remained missing. I respect the process, but it can be hard to prove something thats in your heart., Thats what makes it so special when you see the name going up, she added. The National Archives prepared these state level casualty lists by creating extracts from the Korean War Extract Data File and the Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File, both as of April 29, 2008, of the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Files, part of Record Group 330: Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. | United States. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. Doubek contacted the National Personnel Records Center, Archives and Records Service, in St. Louis, Mo. They seem honored to be putting the names on the Wall.. In 2004, the total is 58,241 names. 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 should be noted, however, that the draft was specifically designed to trigger volunteer enlistments. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall USA website is dedicated to honoring those who died in the Vietnam War. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. The essence of the Wall is the names and the reaction of the visitor to seeing his or her reflection in this sea of remembrance. The major service academies and other military colleges provided close to 900 of the Vietnam officer casualties: the U.S. Military Academy, 278; the U.S. Air Force Academy, 205; the U.S. On July 12, 1973, a disastrous fire at the NPRC destroyed approximately 16-18 million Official Military Personnel Files. Perhaps more important, many of them probably did not yet fully understand their own mortality and were therefore less likely to be hesitant in combat. These files are lists of the names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, listed in chronological order of the casualty date and then alphabetical by last name within a given date. Once a master list was compiled, the names were checked manually for errors. With this list in hand, he went to the various locations where individual service records were kept to review files. We were one giant Hollywood B-17 bomber crew, one perfect socioeconomic platoon storming Omaha Beach or Okinawa. VVMF receives numerous requests each year from individuals who wish to have particular names added to the Memorial. The unit diary portion of the muster roll should indicate when members of the Lima Company, 3rd platoon. On the Vietnam Veterans Memorial site in Washington, D.C., a special plaque reads: "In Memory of the men and women who served in the Vietnam War and later died as a result of their service. The shining surface is intended to reflect the sun, the ground and those who stand before it. the requirements were expanded (by. Richard Sandza received the message on the morning of May 15, 1975, the day his friend became the last American to die in combat during the Vietnam War. In an audiotape recorded for a close friend shortly before Vandegeers death, and transcribed in Bernard Edelmans book Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam, he described the perilous mission in Saigon. The same profile holds true for the Marine Corps, where 87 percent of all officer casualties (821 of 938) were warrant officers, lieutenants or captains. The article was written by Bill Abbott, an independent researcher and writer. Almost 50 percent were majors, lieutenant-colonels, colonels and three were generals. Marine Corps History Division2044 Broadway StreetQuantico, Virginia 22134Telephone: (703) 432-4877, Coast GuardU.S. site, for searching with a word processor. Yet, a civilian heroine who served in a different capacity during that difficult time also merits particular acknowledgment. Through the AFQT process, the men scoring in the higher categories were more likely to be channeled into further specialized training and eventually assigned to technical and administrative units. And mores the pity, because many of them were trying to escape this background and didnt make it. Ninety-one percent of these Army officers were warrant officers, second lieutenants, first lieutenants or captains. U.S. Army Personnel and Dependent Casualties, 1961-1981 85% of the records in this database are related to the Vietnam Conflict. The draftee, if found physically and mentally fit, would be inducted for a period of two years, to be followed by another two year period in the active reserves and a subsequent two years in the inactive reserves. Kurt became the man of the house, even as a boy. EIN: 52-1149668, Copyright 2023 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display, Look up the name in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. that each name was a real person. This memorial was built with private contributions from the American people.