They were glad to see me as it had been a while for replacements with the unit. We are a woman-owned small business and Veteran-owned incorporated in Ohio. Point was the safest place to be,they knew to wait for key elements, RTO, Medica, M60 Gunners. The American military did not lose a battle of any consequence. Required fields are marked *. According to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) there are now officially 58, 318 names on the wall. I am 81 now and survived the encounter by terminated the sniper. Contents 1 Unclear objectives 2 North Vietnamese strategy In your rucksack . Or is it on display in a Hanoi museum so curious citizens of that city can inspect a weapon captured from American imperialists? As we were, steadily building up, our area for protection. I was a point man, M60 Gunner and squad leader. The fact that PDoggbiker cant find any decent calculation/explanation, tells us a lot. We then took all Trucks and equipment to the Port Of Saigon. Dont know why, but generally, their aircraft were not armed (door gunners, etc.). We looked for cover and returned fire the best we could. The average infantryman in Vietnam saw about 240 days of combat in one year thanks to the mobility of the helicopter. The three of us had trained together at Fort Lewis and were good friends. V. Victor Renza was sent home after he was wounded on May 18, 1967. What unit lost the most soldiers in Vietnam? Our chase after the enemy unwittingly led us into a large ambush. Lucky you. never happened,we lost two sweep team members and some Around 3 p.m., when Grandstaff realized we were about to be overrun, he called in artillery right on top of our location. Videos, Film, Music, and Movies about VN War, Author interview War & Life: Discussions with a Veteran, A Chat Between Three Veterans [live video with author], Lest We Forget Meet the Authors & Book Signing April 4th: Cherries and Donut Dolly, Interview with author John Podlaski in Examiner Magazine, American Heroes Radio interviews author of Cherries A Vietnam War Novel, Cherries Author Interviewed on British Website, U.K. Blogspot posts interviews author, John Podlaski, More Book Reviews and author interviews about Cherries, Les Scates, U.S. Army (Ret.) Thanks for the perceived loss and the countless assassinations and torture visited upon Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians goes mainly to the American media and their undying support-by-misrepresentation of the anti-War movement in the United States. Thanks for posting! I was never formally trained as an RTO. Re: Helicopter Crews (Medevac & Dustoff): To my knowledge, only the 1st Cav Medevac had M60s for protection. I didnt want any medals. This is not Vietnam where a machine gunners life expectancy was short because you had an entire army shooting at them. When I was assigned to the M60 in advanced individual training, I decided that if I had to be a gunner I would learn everything there was to know about the weapon. Found NVA bunker complex. I was one of the lucky ones I came home without a physical scratch. They were lazy, cowardly and of questionable loyalty, especially the RUFF/PUFFS, and they would steal your under ware if given half a chance. In the 1st Cav medics were right behind the rto making them a very easy find also. He also worked on Jacqueline Kennedys hair pieces and wigs. During this Census count, the number of Americans falsely claiming to have served in-country is: 13,853,027. I had to rely on my gun more than before. 1 Gun was on my hip with the safety off, ready to rock and roll. Shermans had fairly thin armor (76mm at the thickest compared to a Tiger with 180mm at the thickest with most around 100mm). We observed the rules of the Geneva Convention while the bad guys had no interest in doing so. Not long after the artillery barrage ended, the North Vietnamese swept through 4th Platoon and executed some of the survivors. They were all up there scanning the terrain and looking for signs. 91% of Vietnam Veterans say they are glad they served. I loved it. Joe DeLong joined the company, and Sholly informed me that he would be the M60 gunner. Take out the power center, youve got the edge. To cut the Ho Chi Minh Traila week after the mission endedthe trail was booming with business from the north.. %%EOF The two platoons were to advance no more than 200 yards from the main body of the company. Life expectancy at birth. The first thing my platoon sgt. Company B had seven dead, Grandstaff announced, and I was to take No. Soldiers from 2nd Platoon, Company C, 87th Infantry Regiment, walk on patrol north of the Long . 97% of Vietnam Veterans were honorably discharged. After that initial post-service period, Vietnam veterans were no more likely to die from suicide than non-Vietnam veterans. He pulled the company into a perimeter and dispatched 4th Platoon to recon the trail to the west, while 1st Platoon performed a similar mission to the east-southeast. See also: Population Umm..maybe its because we also learn from experience. Fact: 86% of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasians, 12.5% were black, 1.2% were other races. By the time we reached Vietnam in October 1966 I felt the gun had become a part of me. We were all in our Bunkers, and at the ready with our weapons. DeLong was later killed attempting to escape from a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp in Cambodia. Just published my book The Last Goodbye by John Fratangelo, available on line on Barnes and Noble and Amazon Prime Books, Getting great reviews. They used the callsign MEDIVAC and were armed. approaching a village and a firefight starts). Posterior Thigh _____ 4. It resulted in the death of some 45,000 NVA troops and the complete, if not total destruction of the Viet Cong elements in South Vietnam. Vietnam Veterans were the best educated forces our nation had ever sent into combat. We flew north, then made a stop, in Cam Rahn Bay. Our 5th night there, the AMMO area started burning / blowing up. If you have other information let me know. Sholly injured an ankle, and 1st Lt. Cary Allen took command of Company B. Remember he wanted to reenlist for one more year in Vietnam. In an instant the jungle erupted in gunfire. No creo que Susana _____ (seguir) sobre los consejos de su mdico. I am proud to have fought alongside of them. As I carried a PRC25 radio for over seven-months in the > Nam, I was curious to find out what I did RIGHT to surv >, One MOS I figured was a sure short timer was POL{Fuel} Truck Driver. Over the next two months, we exchanged fire with groups of the NVA. then youd carry an extra 200 rounds of M60 ammo for the machine gunner , plus drag grenades , one smoke grenade plus etc. As I remember it the life expectancy was based on after the ambush was sprung or the fire fight started. We (Americans) had nothing to do with controlling VNAF, according to Lieutenant General (Ret) James F. Hollingsworth, the Commanding General of TRAC at that time. is sharing facts, thats truly good, keep up writing. Es ridculo que t ______ (tener) un resfriado en verano. After a quick lesson, DeLong became the new owner of 4th Platoons No.1 Gun. RIP KOOKIE forever young, Thank god you are still alive, I am age 77. Some were constantly exposed to combat, some not so often. As I made my way to the river, I saw a VC guerrilla jump into the water on the other side. I always found life expectancy numbers interesting in that I could never find any supporting information that could be validated. Tumbling end over end, the canisters exploded in a white-hot fireball. They were great patriots fighting for their families and their homeland. Soldiers also act in the mobilization of vehicles, weaponry, troops, and more. Moving west down the trail, 4th Platoon exchanged fire with a single NVA soldier, then a handful and finally a group of about 10-15 around noon. Either way, thats a lot of soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen, male and female that made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, and there are still people dying as a result of their wounds receiver so very long ago in a place called Vietnam. Hurrying forward with No. wias. Without that commitment, Communism would have swept all the way to the Malacca Straits that is south of Singapore and of great strategic importance to the free world. They were a great bunch. See my calculation below in the comments bogus indeed. There were no Americans involved in any capacity. Total fantasy. Amazingly, the NVA men then walked a short distance away, sat down and ate lunch. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. Artillery, and ground forces. Stop staring at your computer already, get up. We walked the mountains and rice patties all thru Tu Thien Province. Fact: The domino theory was accurate. I also earned a Combat Infantryman Badge, signifying that I had been actively engaged in combat. Were talking averages, obviously so, an RTO, with an expectancy of 5 seconds (!) The helicopter provided unprecedented mobility. Your email address will not be published. 2 Gun team, Ranallo and May, without any support. We wanted a break. I know the scouts in my company had a slightly longer rate but not much. Work Plz. Was it left behind on some forgotten battlefield? I remember hearing a Lieutenant (Kennedy) say to one of his two platoon RTOs My RTO is Foxtrot Uniform. If you were an administrative officer or clerk in an air-conditioned trailer in Saigon, your war might be a lot like peacetime duty. Anxiously extending the bipod legs on the M60, I added a 100-round belt to the one I already had in the gun. Sept 69 to Sept 70. That was supposed to be 58, 220. but wait, there are more numbers for the same story. The average life expectancy of a Soviet soldier during the height of the battle was just 24 hours. Still shaken, I grabbed the gun and crawled to the left inside the streambed. I worried about that kind of leadership style in the highlands. Database. located on the South End of, the Post. Before I became a team leader on ambush and recon I was in command of the scout jeep for the 25th ID resupply convoy from January 1968 to June 15, 1968 and I found the resupply convoys a lot more dangerous because the enemy always knew where it would be and when. General Vo Nguyen Giap, the designer of the Tet Offensive, is considered by some as ranking with Wellington, Grant, Lee and MacArthur as a great commander. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. Mech. 2023 CherriesWriter - Vietnam War website, RTO, John Scheur. C Co, 1st-12th 66-67. After every officer in our company was either killed or had serious wounds, our 1st Sgt , David McNerney took over the company and without his leadership, and knowledge of war, and unbelievable courage, our company would probably have been wiped out. Life Expectancy of the World Population. 4 Bill May and Spc. Ambushed on October 4th,1967. I am one lucky SOB. This is excellent! No trees or anything on the ground. See you in the next life!!!!! Half of the company hopped off the Huey on one side of the river, and the rest exited on the other side. In a strange country scared shitless .I was a minesweeper.My first time out on a mission they put me on the drag line fifty yards from the road which was route 1, Then all hell broke lose Both my tours were in the Delta (IV Corps) where the only ground troops were regular ARVNs and RUFF/PUFFS. My second tour was as the S3 for LTC Anthony Herbertone of Americas greatest leaders and WARRIORS OF ALL TIME. Had multiple Ks and Ws. There were usually 3 man (At least 2) point teams. Like you, I carried a PRC-25 for about 5 months and never got hit. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star in 1974. They were located, next to us, in/on Long Bhin Post. I've never heard about the life expectancy of 6 weeks (even with a short google search). I saw killed and wounded everywhere in our combat operations. He was wounded and suffered permanent disability shortly before his tour was up. Vietnam Veterans represented 9.7% of their generation. 2 Gun.. We ambushed and got ambushed, firebase got attacked who carried what or did what had no bearing. Deltoid muscle _____ 2. Expenditures for a body in a combat zone? The Davis Station in Saigon was named for him. Im laying behind a rice paddie dike.I put my whole body as far down in the muck while the bullets were over my head. While traveling through the boonies the first few men were usually always shot first. But it was my jobso I tried not to think about it much. well i have been army infantry for 12 years with 2 deployments, and still going strong. General Westmoreland quoting Douglas Pike (a professor at the University of California, Berkeley), a major military defeat for the VC and NVA. Welcome Home Brothers ! It was a daily challenge to know who your real enemy was. My shit got weak and a sniper popped three rounds in my young ass. If you ask people who live in these countries that won the war in Vietnam, they have a different opinion from the American news media. 58,148 were killed in Vietnam, 75,000 severely disabled, 23,214 were 100% disabled, 5,283 lost limbs and 1,081 sustained multiple amputations. A Co, 1/5 Cav, 1 Cav Division. Different strokes for different folks in war fer sure. I carried the PRC-25 for most of a year. Ambulances are not supposed to be armed (either) though in training, medics are told they and their vehicles will be a prime target. A dense mass of elephant grass hung over the riverbank, and he ducked under it. I never even got a shot off. Most war stories are about soldiers and battles. As we approached the battle, we heard intense firing. By this census, FOUR OUT OF FIVE WHO CLAIM TO BE VIETNAM VETS ARE NOT. To keep busy on the boat ride to Vietnam, my unitCompany B, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regimentheld competitions where we took the gun apart and put it back together while blindfolded to see who could do it fastest. A former expert with the M60 machine gun shares his experiences wielding the fearsome weapon in Vietnam. Ordered to reinforce the unit, the Company B commander put our four platoons abreast of each other, and we marched west. 11 c mos , meaning I was also cross trained for mortars . Two rounds smashed into a log inches above my head. From the Landing Zone, we were carried not too far. Then we all, loaded on C-147 cargo planes. In total, the 7th Infantry spent four years in Vietnam. 75,000 Vietnam veterans are severely disabled. 1 Gun over my shoulder, grabbed a corner of a poncho and stumbled off with three other soldiers. The article was interesting. And dug Berms, in the area. I was a medic on one for two yrs and the only weapon I was issue was a six-shot .38. Photo above is of Stanley Kober with RTO, John Scheur. If it was 1941 and you were an average Soviet soldier, your life expectancy on the front line was days, not weeks, thanks to the ongoing german offence. I was still pondering the move to 4th Platoon when U.S. Air Force jets screamed over the treetops with canisters of napalm. 87% of Americans hold Vietnam Veterans in high esteem. I remember hearing somewhere about an RTO who wasnt getting the info out correctly and the Lieutenant (Kennedy) grabbed the mic and said My RTO Is Foxtrot Uniform. In my humble opiniona maneven leaders should often recalculate their adversaries capabilities and limitations and his own limitations as wellwhen 10,000 miles from home against a determined worthy foein a strange landThe objective of Lam Son 719? Before he was drafted Renza had worked as a hairdresser for women in his hometown of Peekskill, New York. I always was told that the life expectancy of a LT was 14 seconds in INITIAL combat versus 9 seconds for an RTO. What was the life expectancy of a point man in Vietnam? His comparison to a FB was that if we were fired on we returned fire and requested assistance when needed. He said when they were ambushed they took defensive positions, returned fire, called for assistance when needed, and retreated when necessary. They were held in special regard after the Normandy landings, when 225 Rangers scaled cliffs at Pointe Du Hoc on June 6, 1944 under intense enemy fire. We fought to an agreed stalemate. Thanks. Id love to see the casualties listed by Corps ? What Was It Like To Hump The Boonies in Vietnam? Originally I went to the 543d TC. I will always think/say, we had absolutely no reason for being in that place. Oh, and even the Air Force has ground units. Over 600 Navy FMF Hospital Corpsmen were killed in Vietnam. I was with HHC and 1st Platoon C Company in 70-71. Cluster F, SNAFU and FUBAR fer sur. From a military standpoint, it was almost an unprecedented performance. I served in A Company 3/22 of the 3rd Brigade 4th Infantry 12/66, then Hq Co 2/12 of the 3rd Brigade 25th Inf until the night of the TET offensive end of January 1968 and returned home July 18 1968. Unable to reach Company A, my company pulled back, formed a perimeter and called in air and artillery support. I was already lugging around a 24-pound weapon, 300 rounds of ammo and a pack that weighed a good 45 pounds. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. As far as I knew that was done in the whole battalion in 1968 . Some of my men didnt. Both halves quickly swept toward the river to clear the village. My good friend who was a RTO was killed. I carried the PRC-25 Radio most of that time. After a couple of hours, the Viet Cong stopped shooting and melted back into the jungle. His body was torn to pieces. What was the average life expectancy of a soldier in Vietnam? Sure, its softer than it was before, but the training they go through is intense, something a loser who spends his time on the computer all day attacking people he doesnt know anything about and all the facts CANNOT do. Then we learned, appx: 1 mile to our North was, an American AMMO storage area. An interesting essay, even more interesting are the comments. THE MAN I INHERITED THE GUN FROM WASNT SO LUCKY. He was with the 509th Radio Research Station. 1st Platoon, C Company, 2nd Battalion 327th Infantry. He was not the type to hump a radio. Everyone in the company hit the dirt. I was a 2nd Lt. Infantry platoon Leader. You can find the polarity of a compound by finding electronegativities (an atoms desire for an electron) of the atoms; Carbon has an electronegativity of 2.5, compared to Fluorines A) Enter the the Ksp expression for the solid AB2 in terms of the molar solubility x. As some said, averages are meaningless. In Vietnam 70% 0f the casualties were Infantry BUT it might be 70% of ALL the Infantry that served in Vietnam. Was a door gunner and crew chief for just shy of 18 months (I extended to get out early). Both were infantry in WW2. I am 16 years old an 150 pounds qith some good muscle. 10 1/2 months in the bush. A battery of big 155 mm howitzers blasted the tiny platoon perimeter, tearing trees out of the ground and hurling chunks of red-hot shell splinters through the air. . Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. meaning what is the chance of me getting killed in combat. 79% had a high school education or better. Never knew they had life expectancy stats. Mi hermana se sorprende N-F C-F Cl-F F-F 2 Answers C-F is the most polar. !We dont abuse prisoners Now, if he reaches for his weapon to continue the fight BLOW HIS ASS AWAY THIS AINT SUNDAY SCHOOL!!! The Australian Vietnam veteran study assessed the postservice mortality of 19 205 Vietnam veterans and 25 677 non-Vietnam veterans through 1981. The CDC Vietnam Experience Study Mortality Assessment showed that during the first 5 years after discharge, deaths from suicide were 1.7 times more likely among Vietnam veterans than non-Vietnam veterans. 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). Vietnam veterans' personal income exceeds that of our non-veteran age group by more than 18 percent. However, Shermans were very outmatched by the German tanks on the field of battle. I think convoy truck drivers had one of the most dangerous job. Shortly before 11 a.m. on May 18, the point squad in Company Bs 2nd Platoon spotted three NVA soldiers walking on a trail near the Cambodian border and attempted to capture them, but the NVA dashed off into the jungle. An infantry platoon commander in combat had an average of 6 weeks life expectancy. Sergeant Galiano's experience does not deny Brands depiction of the battle in Vietnam, but offers a typically overlooked perspective of a drafted soldier fighting in the central highlands of Vietnam. I was trained as a RTO in 1970 at Fort Ord then went to Fort Gordon for teletype school, my MOS was 05C20 when I finished.