They were at their peak physically. The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized. The slabs meet at a vertex of 125 degrees, 10 feet above ground level to form the Wall. 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. Names that become eligible for inclusion are added once each year, in May, a few weeks before Memorial Day. site, for searching with a word processor. In high school, he joined ROTC and kept his fathers medals pinned next to his own awards on a piece of crimson cloth. 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 DOD database shows that of the 2,100,000 men and women who served in Vietnam, 58,152 were killed. He was a Navy enlisted man during World War II and has a degree in Political Science from Duke University. Inscription at the beginning of The Wall. The figures show that on average 65 percent of white enlisted men and 60 percent of black enlisted men were high school graduates. Items are gathered by park staff. The panels are numbered beginning from the center out toward the ends of each wall. A.. B.. C.. D.. E.. F.. G.. H.. Coast Guard casualties are included in the Navy totals. The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth, MA; he was listed by theDepartment of Defense as having been killed on June 8, 1956. All other individual draftee files from that period were destroyed by the Selective Service System in 1978, in accordance with approved records retention schedules. 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. This page was last edited on 12 December 2022, at 18:28. A more precise equation would be that the college bound stayed home while the non-college bound served and died. 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. 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. A relatively small number refused to register for the draft at all. The central idea of the poem is that the Vietnamese War took hundreds of lives away from the United States of America. The directory can be purchased on the VVMF store. As of 2017, there are 58,318 names inscribed on The Wall. 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. 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. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Note that the files are large, and are in Rich Text Format (RTF), with two In honor of the men and women of the Armed Forces of the United States who served in the Vietnam War. His name does not appear at either far end. Millions more come to experience this Memorial each year. Of the 8000 Coast guardsmen who served in Vietnam, 3 officers and 4 enlisted men were killed and 59 were wounded. Making these arrangements and printing the pages takes considerable Once download The very young were considered by many to be preferred combat material. The Marine Corps losses were skewed even more to the lower ranks, 91 percent were privates or corporals. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. Authority Record - NARA, Records of the U.S. For a photograph of an inscription of a close friend or relative, write: This website requires a paid subscription for full access. columns per page. 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. At some The Moving Wall sites, the sponsor makes arrangements They went for a ride and she gently told them that their father would not be coming home. About 58 thousand of the 7 million American service men and women who served in Vietnam died. They lived only a few yards apart. We were being fired upon by anti-aircraft guns. And in the patriotic camaraderie typical of Morencis mining families, the nine graduates of Morenci High enlisted as a group in the Marine Corps. 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. Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their sons. Gather facts from sources at home,and talk to relatives. Some have tried for years before receiving approval from DoD. Vandegeer was on a mission to rescue the crew of the SS Mayaguez, a merchant ship captured three days earlier off the coast of Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge. When the sound of exploding hand grenades rang out in the hall, Buis and others ran toward the sound. How many women soldiers died in the Vietnam War? The affected record collections are described below. Scholars debate about when the war really began and in many ways it has never ended. They did not, in most cases, carry the burdens of wife or children. The files are quite large in order that we could save in Rich Text Format Since its adoption in 1951, at the time of the Korean War, this policy had been renewed by Congress every four years. How many names are on the wall? 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. Count down from the top of the panel. Nursing the wounded. | The remaining 70 percent of our Vietnam enlisted casualties were of English/Scottish/Welsh, German, Irish and Scandinavian-American ancestries, more from the South and Midwest than the other regions, many from small towns with a family military tradition. The names of those who gave their lives and of those who remain missing are inscribed in the order they were taken from us. Learn more about featured topics of the Vietnam War and Vietnam Era. Much more detailed Many of them, as experienced pilots, were older (two thirds were thirty or older) and many were high ranking. However, if officer casualties are added to the total, then this overrepresentation is reduced to 12.5 percent of all casualties. They played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. 1970 - ca. Its still fought in the bodies and minds of the men who waged it all those decades ago. Full casualty records may be retrieved online through the National Archives' Access to Archival Databases resource. The last 18 names listed on the bottom of Panel 1, West, also at the apex, are from May 15, 1975. 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. Folded American flags were presented to his parents and an Air Force helicopter flew over the ceremony. 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. In addition to WWII Draft Records, the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, MO maintains Post-WWII through Vietnam Era Selective Service Records, for all men born before 1960. You could also keep these files on a computer at your the reader loses composure. peruse. Army Center of Military History103 3rd AvenueFort Lesley J. McNair, DC 20319-5058Telephone: (202) 685-4042, NavyU.S. And mores the pity, because many of them were trying to escape this background and didnt make it. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today! This can help veterans or relatives find other persons who died with During the Vietnam War, the Navy and Air Force became substantially white enclaves enlisted and officer casualties were 96 percent white. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for all who wish to visit. Protestants were 64.4 percent (37,483), Catholics were 28.9 percent (16,806). 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. 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. 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. Although the names are not listed alphabetically, it is not difficult for visitors to find a name on the Memorial. 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. Most of the young American enlisted men who served in Vietnam were not college prospects at the time they entered the service. In 2004, the total is 58,241 names. The panel number is a number/letter combination, such as 10W or 35E. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a symbol of American honor and appreciation for the men and women who served and sacrificed their lives during the Vietnam War. 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. ".for those who have died." On the west wall, the symbol precedes the name; on the east wall, the symbol follows the name. But there is a beginning. Many others joined the reserves or National Guard, which were not mobilized in any appreciable numbers during the war. For those and a handful of other unique circumstances, Doubek made his own list of men who had died due to the injuries in the combat zonesnames that may have been listed by an individual service branch, but not by DoD. Unfortunately, the Department of Defense and the individual service branches maintained separate casualty lists with slightly differing criteria. The casual visitor might not immediately recognize that Buis name is the first. 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. This amounted to 4.1 percent of all enlisted casualties in Vietnam. And there is an end. 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. This video can help you find the name of someone you'd like to honor. 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. How many Smiths can there possibly be who died in Vietnam? 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. As one stands before the Wall one feels that no other judgment is acceptable to their living memory. And they all went to Vietnam. 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. There are officially 58,228 names on the Wall, but the database these files were derived . Written requests should be mailed to: National Personnel Records Center, 9700 Page Ave., St. Louis, MO 63132-5100. Beside each name is a symbol that denotes a service members status: either missing or confirmed dead. It specified the geographic areas of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and surrounding coastal areas as combat zones. If your browser displays the text file, you can then use Patricia Krause. Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Kansas, Sheridan County, Viet Nam records, 1955-1975, Vermont, National Guard, Vietnam war, 1950-1953, University of Utah - American West Center - Saving the Legacy/ Vietnam Veterans, https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/index.php?title=United_States_Vietnam_War_1964_to_1972&oldid=5123794, Personnel discharged November 1, 1912 to January 1, 1960, Personnel discharged, September 25, 1947 to January 1, 1964, The Military Index is available at the FamilySearch Library and at most FamilySearch centers. During one review, Doubek found a glitch with the computer software: it did not recognize the spaces that appeared within a last name, such as van der Meide. Nor could it properly discern a compounded first name, such as Billy Bob, versus a traditional first and middle name. Once additions are approved by DoD, VVMF receives the list of approved names, coordinates the inscribing and absorbs the costs. 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. 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. 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. Today, more than 58,000 names are engraved in the wall, and more were added in May. It is located north of the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. along Constitution Avenue NW between 21st and 23rd streets. 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. The makeup of U.S. combat forces in Vietnam has long been the subject of controversy among social scientists. 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. The directories are organized alphabetically by last name. The Army refused him, for medical reasons, both times. The Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) was given to all entering enlisted men. A diamond symbol signifies that the service members death was confirmed. If each No single persons service or sacrifice would be any greater than anyone elses. Postscript: Since 1982, there have been 89 names added to The Wall. When the Wall was dedicated in 1982, there were 57,939 names inscribed. These were Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban and other Latino-Americans with ancestries based in Central and South America. Doubek was tasked with identifying all of the names to be included on the Wall. There are students on field trips, some solemn and curious, but some just happy to get out of class. For men who registered for the draft prior to 1976, the only Selective Service System information available is that of the individual Draft Registration Card (SSS Form 1) and Classification History (SSS Form 102) records. 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. It is not surprising, for instance, that West Virginia, Montana, and Oklahoma had a casualty rate almost twice that of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. 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. Of 2,590 total Air Force casualties, 1,674 or 65 percent were officers. 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. Coast Guard Historians OfficeCommandant (CG-09224)U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters 2100 Second Street SW Washington, D.C. 20593. Photo credit DOD photo. Except for the last file, there are approximately 10,000 names per file. There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Vietnam Wall. 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. 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. All would be represented equally, with generals listed alongside infantrymen. And there would be nothing to denote service or rank. Another challenge was ensuring the accuracy of the names. Buis died, as did Army Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand, whose name is second on the wall. Every day, Americas service members selflessly put their lives on the line to keep us safe and free. Individual Award Case Files, 1969 - 1970. 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. 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. They often reveal a typically warm American family atmosphere. Be the first to learn about news, service member stories and fundraising updates from USO. On November 7, 2021 VVMF began a daily virtual Reading of the Names. Their sacrifices were honored July 8, 2009, in Washington during a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of their deaths. Fill out the tour request form. Your donation to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund will help expand our mission to honor, educate and heal. The civilian and military men who formed the policy did not see it necessarily as a disadvantage. Those who could have qualified for college probably did not have the funds or motivation. By providing your mobile phone number, you opt in to receive calls and texts from USO. This is close to, but not exactly in the same order The names of those who gave their lives and of those who remain missing are inscribed in the order they were taken from us. And, as in every American war, it is the very young who are the most willing to volunteer. Vietnam War Casualties, MIA and POWs. prepared by Frances A. Hortsch for the Phoenix Genealogical Society. United States. Since then, 379 names have been added, for a total of 58,318 (as of Memorial Day 2017). name within a given date. 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. Chiseled on the wall are the names of the 58,196 men and women who either died or are still listed as missing in Southeast Asia between 1959 and 1975. . and have two columns per page, rather than only one column. As a result, the software improperly truncated or abbreviated names. There are the tourists who make the circuit of all the various monuments and landmarks in our nations capital. Little about it is concrete. It stands near Panel 1W, which holds the name of the last to die in combat. The unit diary portion of the muster roll should indicate when members of the Lima Company, 3rd platoon. See Access to Non-Archival Records for more information. They seem honored to be putting the names on the Wall.. 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. Since its controversial beginnings, feelings toward the Vietnam Veterans Memorial have changed drastically. 39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger. for all 58,228 names to be read aloud. The Army suffered the most total casualties, 38,179 or 2.7 percent of its force. Almost 50 percent were majors, lieutenant-colonels, colonels and three were generals. I went through the whole list of names eight times, because I was concerned about the correct formatting, remembered Doubek. Colleen Pontes, whose father Kevin Joyce was added in 2003, remembered the rush of emotions she felt as she and her brother watched their dads name being inscribed in the granite. 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. 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. Marlin on March 19, 1967 and Norman on August 18, 1968 Brothers Bennett and Dennis Herrick were both killed in Vietnam. 1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam. 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. The event begins on November 7, 2022 at 3 p.m. EST and ends at midnight on November 10, 2022. One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years old. The Classification History (SSS Form 102) may contain: name; date of birth; classification and date of mailing notice; date of appeal to the board; date and results of armed forces physical examination; entry into active duty or civilian work in lieu of induction (may include date, branch of service entered and mode of entry, such as enlisted or ordered); date of separation from active duty or civilian work; and general remarks. West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the nation. Learn more about featured topics of the Vietnam War and Vietnam Era. Written requests should be mailed to: National Personnel Records Center, 9700 Page Ave., St. Louis, MO 63132-5100. Vietnam Veterans Memorial Learn about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in this brief introductory video. Order records from the National Personnel Records Center, in St. Louis at the Start your Military Service Record Request page at the National Archives website. AGE 17 TO 21 PREFERRED ARMY AND MARINE COMBAT MATERIAL. Nevertheless, 336,111 men were phased into the service under this plan (mostly the Army) and 2,072 were killed. THE NAMES ON THE WALL: AN HISTORICAL JUDGMENT. They drew on every segment of American society. to open, search, edit, or print the name files. 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. do this, be sure to have an alternate reader assigned to take over in case With few exceptions, almost all of the 6,600 commissioned officers who died in Vietnam were graduates of the service academies, college Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), or the Officer Candidate School (OCS) programs. 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. "The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund's registry enables veterans across the world to be able to locate fellow Vietnam Veterans and of course, connect their stories with those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Army and Marine officer casualties were also quite young. Officer casualties in Vietnam, including warrant officers, numbered 7,874, or 13.5 percent of all casualties. They also died quickly, many within a few weeks or months of arriving in Vietnam. This was long before the advent of integrated computer databases. 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. 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 Nor did America recognize, on July 8, 1959the day he was killedthat another long and bloody war lay in wait. Derek Turner is a freelance writer and a former senior editor of On Patrol. but will allow you to download it after you specify a file name. There was no need to embellish. The beginnings and endings are often hazy and the facts of the story lie at the mercy of the teller. If a service member were to return alive, a circlethe symbol of lifewould be inscribed around the plus sign. 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. while they download, thank you. Jimmy died less than 24 hours later on Thanksgiving Day. It is more notable, perhaps, only because his was the first name engraved into The Wall. This change prompted the addition of 110 names in 1986. Often that advice, especially for professional athletes, rock stars, sons of politicians and other celebrities, was to join the never-to-be-called-up reserves or National Guard. 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. 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 young enlisted volunteer or draftee had not had much time to form any complicated theories about our Vietnam commitment. 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. Interested in a tour as part of your visit? 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. The names of Army Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand and Major Dale Buis are inscribed on Panel 1E of the Vietnam War Memorial Wall.