If a service member were to return alive, a circlethe symbol of lifewould be inscribed around the plus sign. A diamond symbol signifies that the service members death was confirmed. 5,058) had ever known and cheered. There were 667; How many Andersons?, 178; Garcias?, 102; Murphys?, 82; Jenkins?, 66; One wants to know more about these Americans. Records of individuals who left service more than 62 years ago are considered Archival Records and become records of the National Archives open to the general public. United States. 997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam. 3rd Battalion. I looked at the record to determine whether mortal wounds were sustained, Doubek said of the men whose names were listed by the Army, but not by DoD. Interesting Veterans Statistics Of The Vietnam Memorial Wall There are 58,267 names now listed on that polished black wall, including those added in 2010. More names are added to the wall every year. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Its still fought in the bodies and minds of the men who waged it all those decades ago. The USO relies on your support to help service members and their families. to open, search, edit, or print the name files. Beside each name is a symbol that denotes a service members status: either missing or confirmed dead. Every day at 3:00 p.m. EST, VVMF will play a daily reading of all the individuals who died upon that day in alphabetical order. And in the patriotic camaraderie typical of Morencis mining families, the nine graduates of Morenci High enlisted as a group in the Marine Corps. The DOD percentages reveal that nearly 75 percent of Army enlisted casualties were privates or corporals. While their names are not on The Wall, they are never forgotten. Black leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., protested, and President Johnson ordered black participation in combat units cut back. Only 3 returned home. When the Wall was dedicated in 1982, there were 57,939 names inscribed. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. This can help veterans or relatives find other persons who died with 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. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. Most of these casualties are documented in the Military Index, a FamilySearch file. 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. Once download Charles Holley; chief editor, Robert J. Martin, 4th Infantry Division. Brothers Marlin and Norman Eversgerd were both killed in Vietnam. This page has been viewed 167,336 times (0 via redirect). By his estimate, he helped pull out close to 2,000 people. The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 2,415 casualties were incurred. The names are listed chronologically by date of death, the first to last. 12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old. Of all enlisted men who died in Vietnam, blacks made up 14.1 percent of the total. This memorial was built with private contributions from the American people. In the event a service members remains are returned or accounted for, then a diamond symbol is engraved over the plus sign. EIN: 52-1149668, Copyright 2023 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. EIN: 52-1149668, Copyright 2023 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display. Since its adoption in 1951, at the time of the Korean War, this policy had been renewed by Congress every four years. West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the nation. 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. Vietnam War, Awards and Decorations of Honor, 1965-1972. Coast Guard casualties are included in the Navy totals. He would become instrumental in helping Doubek identify names and check spellings. Dates of enlsitment or selective service registration will be helpful along with the name military units they served with. 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. A(1780 names - 239023 bytes) B(5502 names - 737972 bytes) C(4363 names - 586584 bytes) D(2790 names - 374290 bytes) E(1082 names - 144866 bytes) F(1979 names - 265759 bytes) G(3036 names - 407075 bytes) H(4463 names - 598834 bytes) I(218 names - 29278 bytes) J(1845 names - 247563 bytes) K(2039 names - 273818 bytes) L(2594 names - 347007 bytes) There are 711 West Virginians on the Wall. They were at their peak physically. Twenty years passed before Vandegeers remains were identified and another five passed before his funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. The names are listed in chronological order, according to the date of casualty. In addition, millions of documents had been lent to the Department of Veterans Affairs before the fire occurred. 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. These officer casualties came more from the South and West regions, 4.1 deaths per 100,000, in contrast to 3.5 from the Northeast and Midwest regions. I can envision a small cottage someplace, with a lot of writing paper, and a dog, and a fireplace, and maybe enough money to give myself some Irish coffee now and then and entertain my two friends , I dont think it will be too terribly long until we are together again.. 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. Once a master list was compiled, the names were checked manually for errors. The Navy had a similar profile: 55 percent of its 622 officer casualties were 30 years of age or older, and 45 percent were ranked at lieutenant commander or above when they died. At the time, approximately 1,300 names were designated as servicemen who were either missing or prisoners of war. Naval Academy, 130; Texas A & M, 112; The Citadel, 66; Virginia Military Institute, 43; Virginia Polytechnic Institute, 26; Norwich University, 19. Interested in a tour as part of your visit? It may come as a surprise to some that 63.3 percent of all Vietnam enlisted casualties were not draftees but volunteers. Senate. 26 Similar Questions 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. Marine Corps History Division2044 Broadway StreetQuantico, Virginia 22134Telephone: (703) 432-4877, Coast GuardU.S. Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their sons. The Names - Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund The Names When the Wall was dedicated in 1982, there were 57,939 names inscribed. Some have tried for years before receiving approval from DoD. There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Vietnam Wall. By providing your mobile phone number, you opt in to receive calls and texts from USO. All were nurses, all were single and all but one were in their 20s. This amounted to 4.1 percent of all enlisted casualties in Vietnam. It ripped men from their loved ones, family, friends, and it left a wave of death in its path. She wanted the names to tell the journey, or the timeline, of the war. As they came through the door, Viet Cong guerrillas opened fire with machine guns. A doctor arrived and gave his shaken mother a sedative. 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. The Army refused him, for medical reasons, both times. Several hundred such designation changes have been made since the Wall was built in 1982. Although the names are not listed alphabetically, it is not difficult for visitors to find a name on the Memorial. True enough, but many of the surviving Vietnam casualty families would reply that the ultimate unfairness is death at an early age, in a land far from home, for reasons not clearly defined. The chronological order allows veterans who were in a battle to see their friends forever united on the Wall, he explained. We honor and remember their sacrifice.". The memorial consists of three separate parts: The Three Soldiers statue, the Vietnam Women's Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, also known as The Wall That Heals, which is the most popular feature. 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. Army and Marine officer casualties were also quite young. 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. Your donation to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund will help expand our mission to honor, educate and heal. This page was last edited on 12 December 2022, at 18:28. On the last day of his life, in the moments before our nations history changed forever, Dale Buis was sitting around a rec center watching a movie called The Tattered Dress, starring Jeff Chandler. 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 draft policy at the time of the Vietnam War was called the Universal Military Training and Service Act. The Army lost the greatest number of officers 4,635 or 59 percent of all officer casualties. Army Center of Military History103 3rd AvenueFort Lesley J. McNair, DC 20319-5058Telephone: (202) 685-4042, NavyU.S. . The result: no comprehensive master list of Vietnam War casualties existed. The names of Army Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand and Major Dale Buis are inscribed on Panel 1E of the Vietnam War Memorial Wall. Unfortunately, the Department of Defense and the individual service branches maintained separate casualty lists with slightly differing criteria. "Home of record" does not necessarily refer to the place of birth, residence of next of kin, place of longest residence, nor other common uses of the term "hometown." Naval History & Heritage CommandWashington Navy Yard, Bldg 57 (3rd Floor)Washington, DC 20374Telephone: (202) 433-3224, Marine CorpsU.S. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. 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). Fill out the tour request form. The feeling is that the poor, the undereducated and the minorities made up the vast majority of the combat arms during that war. This change prompted the addition of 110 names in 1986. name within a given date. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. The list of names begins at the vertex of the walls below the date of the first casualty, 1959, and continues to the end of the east wall. Beallsville, Ohio with a population of 475 lost 6 of her sons. Their sons, if not college material, made up a significant part of the volunteers and draftees. 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. W denotes the west wall, and E denotes the east wall. Concerning, How do I find a name on the Vietnam War Memorial wall? For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today! Photo credit DOD photo by Army Sgt. Except for the last file, there are approximately 10,000 names per file. 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. The USO is a not-for-profit organization and not part of the Department of Defense (DoD). If your browser displays the text file, you can then use Authority Record - NARA, Records of the U.S. For blacks, however, only 7 percent placed in categories I and II and 93 percent placed in categories III and IV. http://www.freetoursbyfoot.com/vietna.. Beginning Research in United States Military Records, National Vietnam War Veterans Day - Wikepedia, National Park Service Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Text STOP to opt out, HELP for help. Learn more about featured topics of the Vietnam War and Vietnam Era. The Wall of Faces allows family and friends to share memories, post pictures and connect with each other. This was long before the advent of integrated computer databases. Adding to the problem was Project 100,000. 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). It should be emphasized that 55 percent of all Navy and Air Force officer casualties came as a result of reconnaissance and bombing sorties into North Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia. Items are gathered by park staff. effort, but is a very effective means to express the enormity of the war and as the names on the Wall. 1970 NAID 570973, State-Level Fatal Casualty Lists sorted Alphabetically by Last Name, List of United States servicemembers and civilians missing in action during the Vietnam War (196165) Wikipedia, U.S., Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Unaccounted-for Remains, Group A (Recoverable), 1941-1975, U.S., Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Unaccounted-for Remains, Group B (Unrecoverable), 1941-1975, Vietnamw-Era POW/MIA Databases & Documents. 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 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. 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. Vietnam War: in Country, Notice: Scanning of Vietnam-era Deck Logs, Vietnam War, 1961-1975. The panel number is a number/letter combination, such as 10W or 35E. 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. Bennett on March 25, 1968 and Dennis on August 02, 1970 Brothers Gabriel and Paul Trujillo were both killed in Vietnam. Vietnam War Casualties, MIA and POWs. Army Major Dale Buis' name is etched into the granite half an inch tall, no bigger or smaller than any of the others. The directories are organized alphabetically by last name. Their names, however, have been removed from the printed Directory of Names. Others, later in the war, were simply ineligible because of high lottery number. No single persons service or sacrifice would be any greater than anyone elses. Written requests should be mailed to: National Personnel Records Center, 9700 Page Ave., St. Louis, MO 63132-5100. 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. All would be represented equally, with generals listed alongside infantrymen. Be the first to learn about news, service member stories and fundraising updates from USO. These young men were trained quickly and shipped to Vietnam quickly. There are over 58,000 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. Though the memorial continues to grow and evolve, the last name on the wall still belongs to Air Force Second Lieutenant Richard Vandegeer, a pilot who died after his helicopter crashed on May 15, 1975, during the wars final combat action. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. 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. You could also keep these files on a computer at your AGE 17 TO 21 PREFERRED ARMY AND MARINE COMBAT MATERIAL. Non-Archival records are those of service members who separated from the military less than 62 years ago. Although valuable, this study was almost certainly misinterpreted by its authors when they said that their data showed that most privileged and influential segments of American society were not insulated from the perils of Vietnam conflict. VVMF does not have the authority to overrule those who adjudicate these matters. This takes about 72 hours. the requirements were expanded (by. Why are names added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall? It should be noted, however, that the draft was specifically designed to trigger volunteer enlistments. 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. As the Vietnam War dragged on, Kurt tried twice to enlist. The 58,152 names of those who died in Vietnam are etched onto the two rising black marble slabs of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. 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. Most of the young American enlisted men who served in Vietnam were not college prospects at the time they entered the service. Their sacrifices were honored July 8, 2009, in Washington during a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of their deaths. Another browser may inform you that it does not know how to display the file They played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. 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.

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