Most of the young American enlisted men who served in Vietnam were not college prospects at the time they entered the service. 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. These casualties came largely from the Northeast and North Central regions of the United States, many from the traditionally patriotic, Catholic working class neighborhoods. 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. What happens to items left at the memorial? 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. 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. It would also enable veterans to find groups of friends who died during the same incident. 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 No other moniker for Sammy Davis Jr. was more accurate. while they download, thank you. The numbers on the wall ascend from the center out toward the left and right extremes. The First and the Last Names on The Wall - United Service Organizations This amounted to 4.1 percent of all enlisted casualties in Vietnam. The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. Fill out the tour request form. readers. 244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall. that each name was a real person. Army and Marine officer casualties were also quite young. Since then, 379 names have been added, for a total of 58,318 (as of Memorial Day 2017). And there are the Vietnam veterans, who come to recognize the sacrifice of their fellow warriors, wondering why their own names are not there, too. 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. name within a given date. This is close to, but not exactly in the same order as the names on the Wall. If a name was particularly long, it would be swapped with a shorter name. A diamond symbol signifies that the service members death was confirmed. Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010: see the "National Cemeteries and Beneficiaries" section below. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today! Are the names on the Vietnam Memorial in alphabetical order? 12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old. Many others joined the reserves or National Guard, which were not mobilized in any appreciable numbers during the war. They played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. 1970 - ca. The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 2,415 casualties were incurred. 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. In the event a service members remains are returned or accounted for, then a diamond symbol is engraved over the plus sign. There are over 58,000 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. It stands near Panel 1W, which holds the name of the last to die in combat. The war is complete, coming full circle, yet broken by the earth that bounds the angles open side and contained within the earth itself. The DOD percentages reveal that nearly 75 percent of Army enlisted casualties were privates or corporals. 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. There was no need to embellish. Another challenge was ensuring the accuracy of the names. Ziomek's name was finally inscribed on the Washington memorial on Sept. 15, 2020; he was one of just three veterans added in 2020. Please be patient The popularity of the GI Bill after Vietnam emphasized this yearning. 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 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. 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. . Each name is listed with great honor and respect. 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 Wall USA is a non-profit endeavor maintained by veterans . Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept. 7, 1965. All were nurses, all were single and all but one were in their 20s. The resulting aptitude scores were used to classify entrants into four categories and this would, for the most part, determine their subsequent assignments. All other individual draftee files from that period were destroyed by the Selective Service System in 1978, in accordance with approved records retention schedules. Bennett on March 25, 1968 and Dennis on August 02, 1970 Brothers Gabriel and Paul Trujillo were both killed in Vietnam. offer to read the block of names that includes their special names. Army Major Dale Buis' name is etched into the granite half an inch tall, no bigger or smaller than any of the others. No single persons service or sacrifice would be any greater than anyone elses. By his estimate, he helped pull out close to 2,000 people. The Selective Service System it said, has the responsibility to deliver manpower to the armed forces in such a manner as to reduce to a minimum any adverse effect upon the national health, safety, interest and progress. 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. As a result, it was mainly the families of Navy and Air Force pilots and crewmen who suffered the great agony of the POW (prisoner of war) and MIA (missing in action) experience that came out of the Vietnam War. There are 58,267 names now listed on Vietnam Wall, including those added in 2010. At the time, approximately 1,300 names were designated as servicemen who were either missing or prisoners of war. 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. Dear Mr. Huddleston, Thank you for posting your request on History Hub! Only 10 percent of enlisted men had even some college to their credit and only 1 percent were college graduates. 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. do this, be sure to have an alternate reader assigned to take over in case 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. Your donation to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund will help expand our mission to honor, educate and heal. Thats a tragic 2,415 more names on the Vietnam Wall in a single month. EIN: 52-1149668, Copyright 2023 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display. If officers are added, then almost 70 percent of those who died were volunteers. 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. Twenty-five years later, in an interview with People magazine, he described playing with his two younger brothers as the news reached their home in Imperial Beach, California. 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. They drew on every segment of American society. All would be represented equally, with generals listed alongside infantrymen. 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. The result: no comprehensive master list of Vietnam War casualties existed. The Air Force lost 2,580 or l percent. "Walking through this park-like area, the memorial appears as a rift in the earth, a long, polished, black stone wall, emerging from and receding into the earth. prepared by Frances A. Hortsch for the Phoenix Genealogical Society. 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. For blacks, however, only 7 percent placed in categories I and II and 93 percent placed in categories III and IV. 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. During the Vietnam War, the Navy and Air Force became substantially white enclaves enlisted and officer casualties were 96 percent white. Coast Guard casualties are included in the Navy totals. Download our app to find events, locations and programs near you. This uneven impact was caused by a number of factors: (1) While the South was home to some 53 percent of all blacks in the 1970 census, almost 60 percent of black casualties came from the South; (2) Although we cannot be as precise, we do know that a considerable majority of Hispanic-American casualties came from the West, (California, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado) and the South (Texas); (3) Better employment opportunities in the Northeast reduced the number of volunteers; (4) Greater college matriculation in the Northeast increased the number of status deferments for the regions 17- to 24- year olds; (5) More anti-war sentiment in the media and on college campuses in the Northeast. On November 7, 2021 VVMF began a daily virtual Reading of the Names. Beallsville, Ohio with a population of 475 lost 6 of her sons. 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. The first two names listed on Panel 1, East Wall, at the apex are from July 8, 1959. The lists are based on the "home of record - state" data provided by the serviceman or woman upon last entrance into military service. 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 Wall is about names. The Channeling Memo of July 1965, instructed all local draft boards to give status deferments to college undergraduate and post-graduate students. The very young were considered by many to be preferred combat material. However, there have been no such cases. person reads for 20 minutes, (270 names) this will require 216 volunteer name Less than 1 percent (0.8) were Jewish, Hindu, Thai, Buddhist or Muslim combined, and 5.7 listed no religion. 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. Postscript: Since 1982, there have been 89 names added to The Wall. The Names - Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund The Names When the Wall was dedicated in 1982, there were 57,939 names inscribed. Nursing the wounded. Buis was in Vietnam by his own volition. Vietnam Veterans Memorial (U.S. National Park Service) More Info At www.themovingwall.org Visit site The beginnings and endings are often hazy and the facts of the story lie at the mercy of the teller. Proving a direct correlation to the injuries is a challenge, Pontes explained. Frequently relatives or buddies of casualties A doctor arrived and gave his shaken mother a sedative. The Marine Corps losses were skewed even more to the lower ranks, 91 percent were privates or corporals. Only 3 returned home. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. But there is a beginning. 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. 31 sets of brothers are on the Wall. Our combat arms were thought to be completely classless. The officer corps casualties alone would satisfy that judgment, but that is not the same as being representative. Lins intention from the beginning was to have the names appear chronologically, beginning and ending at the apex. This can help veterans or relatives find other persons who died with 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. 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 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. 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. 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 names of Army Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand and Major Dale Buis are inscribed on Panel 1E of the Vietnam War Memorial Wall. We were being fired upon by anti-aircraft guns. Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics, Korean War and Vietnam War casualties listed at the National Archives, Hospital Admission Card Files, ca. Compounding these difficulties was the issue that many casualties, particularly from the Air Force, were not always straightforward in terms of locale. VVMF does not have the authority to overrule those who adjudicate these matters. Once additions are approved by DoD, VVMF receives the list of approved names, coordinates the inscribing and absorbs the costs. . 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 USO relies on your support to help service members and their families. Folded American flags were presented to his parents and an Air Force helicopter flew over the ceremony. The names of Army Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand and Major Dale Buis are inscribed on Panel 1E of the Vietnam War Memorial Wall. Kurt became the man of the house, even as a boy. They were struggling through or dropping out of high school, or if a high school graduate, had tested poorly for college entrance. Interested in a tour as part of your visit? The trigger came when the recruiters pointed out that the volunteer could enlist as early as 17 (with parental consent); that he was allowed to select his branch of service; that he would receive specialized training if he qualified; that he could request a specific overseas assignment; and that his three year enlistment followed by three years in the inactive reserves satisfied his military obligation immediately. This year, 14 names were etched into the wall. Wall Information - The Wall USA NAVY AND AIR FORCE OFFICER CASUALTIES BY RANK AND AGE. It gives the names in alphabetical order and . ARMY AND MARINE OFFICER CASUALTIES BY RANK AND AGE. These names are followed by the inscription: Our nation honors the courage, sacrifice and devotion to duty and country of its Vietnam veterans. Charles Holley; chief editor, Robert J. Martin, 4th Infantry Division. Your donation to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund will help expand our mission to honor, educate and heal. The panels come together to form a point, linking the first and last together in enduring tribute. Black leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., protested, and President Johnson ordered black participation in combat units cut back. Fallen comrades could be together on the Wall, as theyd been in death. site, for searching with a word processor. The names of those who gave their lives and of those who remain missing are inscribed in the order they were taken from us. In a massive sampling of the database, it was established that between 5 and 6 percent of Vietnam dead had identifiable Hispanic surnames. Records of U.S. Military Casualties, Missing in Action, and Prisoners of War from the Era of the Vietnam War are available through the National Archives. Locate the corresponding panel at the Memorial. And there is an end. As a result, the software improperly truncated or abbreviated names. The central idea of the poem is that the Vietnamese War took hundreds of lives away from the United States of America. This is close to, but not exactly in the same order Getting to Washington, D.C. When the Wall was dedicated in 1982, there were 57,939 names inscribed. Search the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s database of names on the wall. What the MIT study almost certainly showed was that members of the so-called working class consisting of carpenters, electricians, plumbers, firemen, policemen, technicians, skilled factory operatives, farmers, etc., were living in middle class communities and were, therefore, part of our burgeoning middle class. 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 Forces in Southeast Asia, 1950 - 1976 NAID 745, RG, 472, Meritorious Unit Commendations, 1967 - 1971 NAID 4726287, Medal of Honor Awards Case Files, 1965 - ca. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. 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. 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. ), EDUCATIONAL LEVELS OF ENLISTED CASUALTIES. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. 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. as the names on the Wall. And mores the pity, because many of them were trying to escape this background and didnt make it. There are 711 West Virginians on the Wall. Quite a different profile emerges among the Navy and Air force officer corps. 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. 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. On average, 43 percent of white enlisted entrants placed in categories I and II (scoring 65 to 100) and 57 percent in categories III and IV (scoring 10 to 64). 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. Vietnam Memorial.com - Vietnam Memorial List of Heroes - Vietnam The largest age group, 8,283 were just 19 years old. 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. Authority Record - NARA, Records of the U.S. Kurt Buis was 8 years old the day his father died. The Navy fatalities were 2,556 or 2 percent. Click to learn about the In Memory program . Alphabetical listing of the names on the Vietnam Memorial Wall . The Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) was given to all entering enlisted men. The DOD database listed precise religious preferences for the 58,152 Vietnam casualties. It is hard to believe it is 36 years since the last casualties. 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 article was originally published in the June 1993 issue of Vietnam Magazine and updated in November 2004. Some went to Canada or Sweden, but few of those who evaded the draft were actually prosecuted and most were eventually pardoned by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. Buis died, as did Army Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand, whose name is second on the wall. Army Major Dale Buis name is etched into the granite half an inch tall, no bigger or smaller than any of the others. As the Vietnam War dragged on, Kurt tried twice to enlist. Little about it is concrete. 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. 1st Class Michael J. Carden, "'The Vietnam War' Sponsor Bank of America Teams With The Lumineers to Support the USO ", Programs for Service Members and Their Families. peruse. In 2004, the total is 58,241 names. The unit diary portion of the muster roll should indicate when members of the Lima Company, 3rd platoon. Since its adoption in 1951, at the time of the Korean War, this policy had been renewed by Congress every four years. The Vietnam Wall Flashcards | Quizlet This index includes those who died or who were declared dead from 1950 to 1957 in Korea and from 1957 to 1975 in Southeast Asia. Lower end category IVs consisting of those who scored below 20 on the AFQT were usually rejected for service. Marlin on March 19, 1967 and Norman on August 18, 1968 Brothers Bennett and Dennis Herrick were both killed in Vietnam. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. Unfortunately, he mistakenly added a small number of names of men who were still alive. The Marine Corps lost 14,836, or 5 percent of its own men. During and after the Vietnam War, the Department of Defense (DoD) compiled a list of combat zone casualties according to criteria in a 1965 Presidential Executive Order. 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. VVMF receives numerous requests each year from individuals who wish to have particular names added to the Memorial. Vietnam War Casualties- Main Alphabetical Index www.VirtualWall.org Find A Name Information Memorial pages honoring Vietnam War casualties, listed by their last names. The names are listed chronologically by date of death, the first to last. The Selective Service System remains in place today. Certainly, some who died did come from poor and broken homes in the urban ghettos and barrios, or were from dirt-poor farm homes in the South and Midwest. 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. but will allow you to download it after you specify a file name. 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. Online Vietnam War Indexes & Records - Military Indexes Please take a moment to let our troops know how much we appreciate their service and sacrifice. 8 Women are on the Wall. 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. The men and women who valiantly fought in the Vietnam War certainly deserve the title of hero. Some common names appear on the Memorial more than once. How to Order a Draft Record. The files are quite large in order that we could save in Rich Text Format Its now one of the most popular memorials in Washington. The casual visitor might not immediately recognize that Buis name is the first. Physical examination and test results, medical letters, laboratory work and other medical documentation that may have been included in these files no longer exist. When the sound of exploding hand grenades rang out in the hall, Buis and others ran toward the sound.