Their sons, if not college material, made up a significant part of the volunteers and draftees. On November 7, 2021 VVMF began a daily virtual Reading of the Names. It was fitting that Vandegeer finally returned home to American soil, because he spent his last weeks at war evacuating Americans as Saigon fell. The Navy fatalities were 2,556 or 2 percent. Air Force Historical Research Agency 600 Chenault Circle Maxwell AFB, AL 36112-6424Telephone: (334) 953-2395, ArmyU.S. And there would be nothing to denote service or rank. Alphabetical listing of the names on the Vietnam Memorial Wall . Many of them, as experienced pilots, were older (two thirds were thirty or older) and many were high ranking. But given the draft policies, the hard-sell recruitment, the severe escalation from month to month and the refusal by President Lyndon Johnson to call up the older reserves and National Guard, it could not have been otherwise. Congress. The ship had been taken to the island of Koh Tang. Scholars debate about when the war really began and in many ways it has never ended. Only 3 returned home. He would become instrumental in helping Doubek identify names and check spellings. Family members are invited to witness the inscription and also to attend the annual Memorial Day ceremony when the new names are read at the Wall. November 11, 1982. There are students on field trips, some solemn and curious, but some just happy to get out of class. The Names - Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund The Names When the Wall was dedicated in 1982, there were 57,939 names inscribed. Much more detailed name within a given date. The draft policy at the time of the Vietnam War was called the Universal Military Training and Service Act. Your donation to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund will help expand our mission to honor, educate and heal. Search the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s database of names on the wall. Once additions are approved by DoD, VVMF receives the list of approved names, coordinates the inscribing and absorbs the costs. During the Vietnam War, the Navy and Air Force became substantially white enclaves enlisted and officer casualties were 96 percent white. Thus, there were 211,455 killed and wounded, or one in every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam. Proving a direct correlation to the injuries is a challenge, Pontes explained. Every day, Americas service members selflessly put their lives on the line to keep us safe and free. 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. The casualty date is the date the person was killed or wounded in combat or injured during an accident; for the missing, the date is when the person was reported missing. And mores the pity, because many of them were trying to escape this background and didnt make it. person reads for 20 minutes, (270 names) this will require 216 volunteer name is complete, or you've done a "save as", you can use any word processor However, if officer casualties are added to the total, then this overrepresentation is reduced to 12.5 percent of all casualties. Each entry includes a panel number and letter; "W" is for "west" or the left half of the memorial, "E" is for east, or the right half of the memorial. On that panel, above the names is this inscription: In honor of the men and women of the armed forces of the United States who served in the Vietnam War. This number of deaths per 100,000 compared strikingly with the 23.5 in the Northeast region, 29.9 in the West and 28.4 in the North Central (Midwest) region. Some have tried for years before receiving approval from DoD. prepared by Frances A. Hortsch for the Phoenix Genealogical Society. It is instructive to read the literature of the war, the letters written home from those who died, the novels and narrative accounts of those who served in combat and then returned. 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. Since its controversial beginnings, feelings toward the Vietnam Veterans Memorial have changed drastically. The feeling is that the poor, the undereducated and the minorities made up the vast majority of the combat arms during that war. EIN: 52-1149668, Copyright 2023 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display. In honor of the men and women of the Armed Forces of the United States who served in the Vietnam War. Library of Congress, National Archives Reference Information Page 90 A Finding Aid to Records Relating to American Prisoners of War and Missing in Action from the Vietnam War Era, 1960-1994, Records on Military Personnel Who Died, Were Missing in Action or Prisoners of War as a Result of the Vietnam War, Missing Vietnam Military Resulting from Hostile Forces, Missing Vietnam Military NOT Resulting from Hostile Forces, Vietnam War, Awards and Decorations of Honor, 1965-1972, Medal of Honor Awards Case Files, 1965 - ca. It forces us to the conclusion that many of those names on the wall were kids who just couldnt quite get it together in high school, a little late in maturing intellectually, and didnt have the resources or the guile to get out of the way when the war came. As Maya Ling Lin, the architect of the Wall, has said: It was as if the black-brown earth were polished and made into an interface between the sunny world and the quiet dark world beyond that we cannot enter. What happens to items left at the memorial? Getting to Washington, D.C. Thus we can see that the channeling philosophy continued within the armed forces. Only the Navy, with 50 percent of its enlisted casualties over 21, and the Air Force, with 75 percent over 21, showed an older, more experienced age demographic. These directories help locate names on the wall. while they download, thank you. Its still fought in the bodies and minds of the men who waged it all those decades ago. He tried to make the best call he could when adding names to the list. 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. Please say a prayer for our fallen heroes, their family members, and our hero Vietnam War Veterans during your visit. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. While VVMF finances the name additions to the Wall, it is the Department of Defense that makes these difficult and often technical decisions. Almost 50 percent were majors, lieutenant-colonels, colonels and three were generals. Army Major Dale Buis name is etched into the granite half an inch tall, no bigger or smaller than any of the others. 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. The memorial is free and open to the public 24 hours a day, with rangers on duty to answer questions from 9:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 2,415 casualties were incurred. 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. The National Park Service offers these steps for locating a name: National Park Service rangers and volunteers are available to assist in locating names at the Memorial. Buis can be found at the top middle of a slab designated Panel 1E. EIN: 52-1149668, Copyright 2023 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display. 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 12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old. These young men were trained quickly and shipped to Vietnam quickly. If officers are added, then almost 70 percent of those who died were volunteers. The Marines of Morenciled some of thebest high school football and basketball teams that the little Arizona copper town of Morenci (pop. The 1970 census which is being used as our Vietnam era population base did not list an Hispanic count but gave an estimate of 4.5 percent of the American population. Together, we can make sure our heroes will get the reverence they deserve and the stories and sacrifices of our heroes will never be forgotten. Of the 7,877 officer casualties, 7,595, or 96.4 percent, were white; 147, or 1.8 percent, were black; 24, or 0.3 percent, were Asian; 7, or .08 percent, were Native American; 104, or 1.3 percent, were unidentified by race. Lins intention from the beginning was to have the names appear chronologically, beginning and ending at the apex. Although it is a truism that the young die in war, one is still unprepared for the fact that 40 percent of Marine enlisted casualties in Vietnam were teenagers; that more than 16 percent of Army enlisted casualties were also teenagers; and that nearly a quarter of all enlisted casualties in Vietnam were between the ages of 17- and 19-years old. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept. 7, 1965. It gives the names in alphabetical order and . 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. It is hard to believe it is 36 years since the last casualties. Another browser may inform you that it does not know how to display the file Tom was killed while assaulting the enemy on Dec. 7, Pearl HarborDay. 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. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Unfortunately, he mistakenly added a small number of names of men who were still alive. The Army lost the greatest number of officers 4,635 or 59 percent of all officer casualties. Individual Award Case Files, 1969 - 1970. The panel numbers are inscribed at the bottom of each panel. There are 58,267 names now listed on Vietnam Wall, including those added in 2010. And they are so respectful when they do the engraving. This video can help you find the name of someone you'd like to honor. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. All were nurses, all were single and all but one were in their 20s. To put a circle around the symbol beside their names would not provide the correct historical context related to their situation. These casualties came largely from the Northeast and North Central regions of the United States, many from the traditionally patriotic, Catholic working class neighborhoods. But in 1966, President Johnson and Secretary of Defense McNamara decided to institute Project 100,000 that would allow category IV men to enter the military. In terms of national origin/ancestries, an extensive sampling of the data-base reveals that Americans of French Canadian, Polish, Italian and other Southern and Eastern European surnames made up about 10 percent of the Vietnam casualties. We worked very hard with volunteers from the Gold Star Mothers, recalled Doubek. Honor Vietnam Veterans you know with a gift from our VVA store, or a custom military embroidered shirt, jacket, or polo so they can proudly demonstrate their service to their grateful nation. Vietnam War Casualties- Main Alphabetical Index www.VirtualWall.org Find A Name Information Memorial pages honoring Vietnam War casualties, listed by their last names. As we search for proper bookends to encapsulate the story of a generation at war, perhaps the best we can do is look at what is written in stone. There are over 58,000 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. As the Vietnam War dragged on, Kurt tried twice to enlist. Hed volunteered to join a small U.S. military advisory team attached to the South Vietnamese army, and hed been in the village of Bien Hoa for only two days. Congress and the Johnson administration, therefore, sought to protect our college-bound and educated young men. The Order of Precedence For Military Ribbon Wear, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pubH-5CulqI, Military Funeral Guide for Families & Funeral Homes, The Ultimate Military Gift Guide for Unique Military Gifts, Black Military History and Black Medal of Honor Recipients. If a name was particularly long, it would be swapped with a shorter name. As she wisely predicted, this would help bring the veterans back in timeand a cathartic healing would occur for many by facing this loss again.. Together, we can make sure our heroes will get the reverence they deserve and the stories and sacrifices of our heroes will never be forgotten. The numbers on the wall ascend from the center out toward the left and right extremes. 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. I went through the whole list of names eight times, because I was concerned about the correct formatting, remembered Doubek. In the event a service members remains are returned or accounted for, then a diamond symbol is engraved over the plus sign. The virtual Wall of Faces features a page dedicated to honoring and remembering every person whose name is inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. There were 667; How many Andersons?, 178; Garcias?, 102; Murphys?, 82; Jenkins?, 66; One wants to know more about these Americans. 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. As we have pointed out earlier, more than 80 percent of our casualties were Army and Marine enlisted men with an average age of 19- to 20-years. Army Center of Military History103 3rd AvenueFort Lesley J. McNair, DC 20319-5058Telephone: (202) 685-4042, NavyU.S. columns per page. For a photograph of an inscription of a close friend or relative, write: This website requires a paid subscription for full access. In this study we will refer to casualties as the 58,152 who died in Vietnam, but it should be emphasized that there were 153,303 who were wounded seriously enough to be hospitalized. How many names are on the wall? It is forgotten now, but in the beginning Congress and most of the American people were behind our containment effort in Vietnam. These names are followed by the inscription: Our nation honors the courage, sacrifice and devotion to duty and country of its Vietnam veterans. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Who were they? Their names, however, have been removed from the printed Directory of Names. The unit diary portion of the muster roll should indicate when members of the Lima Company, 3rd platoon. 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. 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. 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. An estimated 11,000 women served in Vietnam. We searched the National Archives Catalog and located a series titled Muster Rolls and Personnel Diaries, 1941-1980 in the Records of the U.S. Marine Corps (Record Group 127). The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized. NAID 5709942, U.S. Air Force Historical Research Agency, National Archives Command Chronologies:Vietnam War, National Archives Command Chronologies: Vietnam War: Index to Reports, National Archves. 54 soldiers on the Wall attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia. The idea that American enlisted dead were made up largely of societys poverty stricken misfits is a terrible slander to their memory and to the solid working-class and middle-class families of this country who provided the vast majority of our casualties. The Air Force lost the highest percentage of officers. . The names would become the memorial. Making these arrangements and printing the pages takes considerable Bennett on March 25, 1968 and Dennis on August 02, 1970 Brothers Gabriel and Paul Trujillo were both killed in Vietnam. 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. What will be the evolving historical judgment for those names on the Wall? Since its adoption in 1951, at the time of the Korean War, this policy had been renewed by Congress every four years. LeRoy was killed on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the fourth anniversary of President John F. Kennedys assassination. The slabs meet at a vertex of 125 degrees, 10 feet above ground level to form the Wall. The mission of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) is to honor and preserve the legacy of service and educate all generations about the impact of the Vietnam War. When the Wall was dedicated in 1982, there were 57,939 names inscribed. compiled by Military Records and Research Library, Department of Military Affairs; edited by Julia D. Rather and Jeffrey Michael Duff, Research Our Records. Its unlikely that anyone who visits the memorial on a given day would have the time, the heart or the stomach to read and consider each one. U.S. Army Personnel and Dependent Casualties, 1961-1981 85% of the records in this database are related to the Vietnam Conflict. The men and women who valiantly fought in the Vietnam War certainly deserve the title of hero. The first two names listed on Panel 1, East Wall, at the apex are from July 8, 1959. They played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. The Wall of Faces allows family and friends to share memories, post pictures and connect with each other. Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010: see the "National Cemeteries and Beneficiaries" section below. Some recent studies tend to refute what had been the perceived wisdom of social scientists and other commentators that our Vietnam dead came overwhelmingly from the poor communities. As of 2017, there are 58,318 names inscribed on The Wall. Order it can be difficult but there are a few ways to find a name at either end of the memorial are stands with books inside these list the names in alphabetical. One additional factor, often overlooked, that influenced volunteer enlistment was military tradition the influence of fathers, grandfathers, brothers, uncles and others who had served in previous 20th century wars. The figures show that on average 65 percent of white enlisted men and 60 percent of black enlisted men were high school graduates. West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the nation. Nursing the wounded. The job of cross-referencing the information of individual branches with the DoD fell to Doubek. For more information on this index on, Records relating to American prisoners of war and missing in action from the Vietnam War, including lists and descriptions of the record groups covering the Vietnam War that are held by the National Archives are also found in the FS Library US/CAN Book. The names of the 2,504 Americans missing in action from the Vietnam War are on the Tablets of the Missing at the ABMC Honolulu Memorial. http://www.freetoursbyfoot.com/vietna.. 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. 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. The DOD percentages reveal that nearly 75 percent of Army enlisted casualties were privates or corporals. If a service member were to return alive, a circlethe symbol of lifewould be inscribed around the plus sign. https://www.historynet.com/names-on-the-wall-a-closer-look-at-those-who-died-in-vietnam/, Jerrie Mock: Record-Breaking American Female Pilot, When 21 Sikh Soldiers Fought the Odds Against 10,000 Pashtun Warriors, Few Red Tails Remain: Tuskegee Airman Dies at 96. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) study released in 1992, found that our Vietnam casualties were only marginally greater from the economically lowest 50 percent of our communities (31 deaths per 100,000 of population), when compared with the economically highest 50 percent (26 deaths per 100,000 population). In a massive sampling of the database, it was established that between 5 and 6 percent of Vietnam dead had identifiable Hispanic surnames. Her name? Together, we can make sure our heroes will get the reverence they deserve and the stories and sacrifices of our heroes will never be forgotten. 1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam. Photo credit DOD photo by Army Sgt. Millions more come to experience this Memorial each year. On July 12, 1973, a disastrous fire at the NPRC destroyed approximately 16-18 million Official Military Personnel Files. In an effort to further preserve the legacy of those who sacrificed all in Vietnam, VVMF is committed to finding a photo to go with each of the more than 58,000 names on The Wall. Most of the young American enlisted men who served in Vietnam were not college prospects at the time they entered the service. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. VVMF does not have the authority to overrule those who adjudicate these matters. Today, more than 58,000 names are engraved in the wall, and more were added in May. There are the tourists who make the circuit of all the various monuments and landmarks in our nations capital. The lists are based on the "home of record - state" data provided by the serviceman or woman upon last entrance into military service. Officer casualties in Vietnam, including warrant officers, numbered 7,874, or 13.5 percent of all casualties. It is hard to believe it has been 36 years since the last casualties. Written requests should be mailed to: National Personnel Records Center, 9700 Page Ave., St. Louis, MO 63132-5100. offer to read the block of names that includes their special names. Locate the corresponding panel at the Memorial. If you Beginning at the apex on panel 1E and going out to the end of the East wall, appearing to recede into the earth (numbered 70E May 25, 1968), then resuming at the end of the West wall, as the wall emerges from the earth (numbered 70W continuing May 25, 1968) and ending with a date in 1975. Names that become eligible for inclusion are added once each year, in May, a few weeks before Memorial Day. 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. Little about it is concrete. This was a reflection of the role of warrant officers as helicopter pilots (of the 1,277 warrant officer casualties, 95 percent were Army helicopter pilots), and of the young lieutenants and captains as combat platoon leaders or company commanders. All classes were drafted or volunteered and all served and died equally, although it must be noted that most blacks died separately. Kurt Buis was 8 years old the day his father died. Once download They were struggling through or dropping out of high school, or if a high school graduate, had tested poorly for college entrance. An aunt came and loaded the three boys into the car. This page was last edited on 12 December 2022, at 18:28. The widely held notion that the poor served and died in Vietnam while the rich stayed home is way off the mark. The officer corps has always drawn heavily on English/Scottish/Welsh, German, Irish and Scandinavian-American ancestries from middle-class white collar homes, with other large percentages from ambitious working class blue collar and, of course, career military families. Those designated by a plus sign were considered to be missing in action when the war ended. If the two branches are combined, then 80 percent of the Army and Marine enlisted casualties were privates or corporals, grades E-1 to E-4. It called for the registration of all 18 to 26-year old males, with induction to take place at 18 1/2 if so ordered by the local draft board. For weeks and weeks, a team worked through the list, verifying spellings and ensuring that the computer printout that was to be used for the stenciling was correct. Nevertheless, 336,111 men were phased into the service under this plan (mostly the Army) and 2,072 were killed. There are the still-grieving family members who come to pay respects as they would at a cemetery, to leave mementos and make chalk renderings of a loved ones name. Your donation to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund will help expand our mission to honor, educate and heal. Look at the bottom of each panel on the wall for its number. In the military it can be somewhat more deadly. The combination of the selective service policies with the skills and aptitude testing of both volunteers and draftees (in which blacks scored noticeably lower) conspired to assign blacks in greater numbers to the combat units of the Army and Marine Corps. Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics, Korean War and Vietnam War casualties listed at the National Archives, Hospital Admission Card Files, ca.
Courthouse Wedding, Durham Nc,
British Airways Economy Standard Seat Selection,
Articles A