Activated in 1915, as the 173rd Infantry Brigade, the unit saw service in World War II but is best known for its actions during the Vietnam War. 2023 CherriesWriter - Vietnam War website, RTO, John Scheur. I knew some of this, but certainly not all. He was with the 509th Radio Research Station. 2 Gun team, Ranallo and May, without any support. The American military did not lose a battle of any consequence. How old are Vietnam vets now? 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. Welcome home. I got shot on a mission with 45 days left. I remember hearing a Lieutenant (Kennedy) say to one of his two platoon RTOs My RTO is Foxtrot Uniform. US Wings is a verified SAM Contractor and DLA Supplier and is officially listed as a manufacturer/retailer in the US Department of Commerce's Office of Textile and Apparel (OTEXA) Made in the USA database. Posterior Thigh _____ 4. News media have reported tha an American commander ordered the air strike that burned Kim Phuc.Those are incorrect. Mech. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. It was very nearly my last. 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 Lowering my gun, I turned around and noticed two VC sitting in the doorway of the hut, staring at me. A "Sapper" is a combat engineer soldier who is with the front line infantry troops. Two of my classmates were killed within 2 weeks incountry and three wounded I know of. I wasnt sure if the VC had moved to right or left, so I sprayed the elephant grass in both directions. An interesting comment I had. Rules may have changed, I was in the Delta region. At Fort Lewis, every recruit learned to operate various weapons. I never even got a shot off. They were a great bunch. It was more or less next man up . Our battalion operated at a base camp near Tuy Hoa in Phu Yen province along the South China Sea from October 1966 to January 1967. hbbd```b`` ,&Iw sA '#o Our home base was Quang Tri fire Base, But I spent about 6 months out at Mai Loc with the rig. I was an O5C-20 in Vietnam. It means, IF (!) I was never formally trained as an RTO. He then said that they were generally on patrol moving through their area, both attacking and being attacked depending if the VC knew their location. John Doever My friend May, I later learned, was doing the same thing in 2nd Platoon. I also earned a Combat Infantryman Badge, signifying that I had been actively engaged in combat. EACH OF US CARRIES OUR OWN MEMORIES AND THEY RUN THE GAMUT. During that same Census count, the number of Americans falsely claiming to have served was: 9,492,958. It was one of my most memorable tours in the Navy I later went to a carrier and was bored silly because I had about 1% of the responsibilities I had as an O-2. I credit my longetivity to great training at Ft Benning. I personally believe and agree with previous posts that when its your time, not much you can do. In Vietnam 70% 0f the casualties were Infantry BUT it might be 70% of ALL the Infantry that served in Vietnam. 76% of the men sent to Vietnam were from lower middle/working class backgrounds. Fact: 2/3 of the men who served in Vietnam were volunteers. Welcome home!! Some of my men didnt. The casualty rate in the current war today is a fraction. What was the average life expectancy of a soldier in Vietnam? If you would like to get a copy, and cant find it, let me know, and I will make sure you get one. I was sitting on the ground one day trying to dry out my gear and better configure my ruck when my squad leader came walking over to me and said, Gow, youve got the radio. As he turned and walked away! Event date is used instead of declared dead date for some of those who were listed as missing in action). One was holding a carbine. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. 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. 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. Naturally I was excited at the opportunity to join Sanzone, but at the same time I hated leaving 2nd Platoons No. 1ST MAW 66-68. The gas-operated, belt-fed gun had a maximum rate of fire of 550-650 rounds per minute. I remember we were always short of replacements throughout 1968 because of the high Kia & wounded rate we suffered at that time ! The 4th Platoon survivors stayed put for the night. Though I flew only about 1/2 dozen missions as a Huey door gunner, I was initially told to sit on my flak jacket I always did so (personal protection first). Nobody attacked, where we were. There were no Americans involved in any capacity. 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. I look over to Stop staring at your computer already, get up. 2) by my research, medics suffered 93% casualties with about 33% deaths. The earliest casualty record contains a date of death of . Hack volunteered for service in Vietnam in 1968, joining the 1st Infantry Division. To cut the Ho Chi Minh Traila week after the mission endedthe trail was booming with business from the north.. of what was usually 5 or 6 going in and many times the leads would find traps, punji pits or the VC waiting. We used to provide cover for these guys. A former expert with the M60 machine gun shares his experiences wielding the fearsome weapon in Vietnam. Sure but so was everyone else who went 12 months without getting killed or wounded. 101st Airborne Division. I spent 10 1/2 months in the jungles of Vietnam. After a quick lesson, DeLong became the new owner of 4th Platoons No.1 Gun. I know this is a standard cliche, but it is so true, All gave some. RIght there and the NVA we were usually up against knew this. a RTO got killed, it happened within 5 seconds but not that always ALL RTOs got killed. 1 Gun was on my hip with the safety off, ready to rock and roll. I traveled to Fort Lewis, Washington, and trained there for 10 months before deploying to Vietnam as specialist 4. Some unfortunately also came home with physical scars. where can i find red bird vienna sausage? E)V_5lu[vC3+"vg2L& Knowing I had a 100-round belt in my M60, I opened up on that hillside, my gun getting so hot that the barrel smoked. Soldier,this is a wardont forget that, and anytime we are in a fight we will be toughest SOBs in the fight!! Despite initial victories by the Communists forces, the Tet Offensive resulted in a major defeat of those forces. Life expectancy at birth. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. I was shot down on my very first mission in July 1968. Never knew they had life expectancy stats. Then he said youre on a FB, the enemy always knows your location, can pretty much attack at will, and you really dont have the capability to retreat. How Many Vietnam War Veterans Are Still Alive? So I guess i lasted longer than I was supposed to. An infantry platoon commander in combat had an average of 6 weeks life expectancy. year old Marine thinking this is my last day on earth. And dug Berms, in the area. The Marine Corps lost 14,836, or 5 percent . Four platoons in a rifle company. It may not have worked for some other wars, but they were pretty helpful. 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. Love you Wortman!!!! I was constantly untangling the barrel and bipod of the gun from grasping vines and branches. Me molesta que mis padres no ______ (cuidar) su alimentacin.. 3. rice farmer who was still working with is ox like nothing ever While traveling through the boonies the first few men were usually always shot first. Hi, the whole thing is going nicely here and ofcourse every one A typical Patrol Boat River (PBR) was about 31 feet long and had twin 50s forward an M 60 midships and a 50 aft. The 140,000 evacuees in April 1975 during the fall of Saigon consisted almost entirely of civilians and Vietnamese military, NOT American military running for their lives. Our 5th night there, the AMMO area started burning / blowing up. Tony told me that either he or I would greet all incoming troops and we did- and here is the speech we gave to them. is sharing facts, thats truly good, keep up writing. I had yet to fire a shot with No. But it was my jobso I tried not to think about it much. Re: Helicopter Crews (Medevac & Dustoff): To my knowledge, only the 1st Cav Medevac had M60s for protection. I couldnt disagree. Your Dad and I had the same job. Database. Nixon Presidential Papers. No combat assignments for another year of service in Vietnam or get out in about a month. There must have been a real mathematician to come up with those calculations. Required fields are marked *. No trees or anything on the ground. Over 900,000 patients were airlifted (nearly half were American). If youre a foreigner, I respect what you think, but make sure you read ALL your facts, and dont come to rash conclusion until you know everything from BOTH sides. Thats why I never understand people talking about survivors guilt it should have been me, why him? etc. Often as not he was right beside you with a stolen chicken and a bag of rice. It was an HONOR and a privilege to serve with these brave men for my 11 month tour. I was a grunt with c co. 4/31 196th it inf bade. I never understood why they didnt put M60s on Medevacs (once the VC shot them down) but then, we now know they never intended to win that war in the first place. aND, mAY GOD BLESS AMERICA!!! 1 Gun and I survived our first firefight. Fact: No American had involvement in this incident near Trang Bang that burned Phan Thi Kim Phuc. February 5 th, 1967, Galiano was headed to Saigon, Vietnam with 90 fellow Americans on an Air Force c-131, but orders were quickly altered . I do remember when I got short I thought about it a lot more. In the hands of a well-trained machine gunner, the M60 was a devastating weaponso feared by our opponents that they usually aimed their first shots at the machine gunners, who were often in positions exposed to enemy fire. 4 Paul Domke, who carried extra belts of ammo and fed them into the gun. Bloody May 1968 Mini TET. Ambushed on October 4th,1967. 1 Gun kept a lot of enemy heads down. 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.