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I needed the rest! Still, other sources like the New York Times claim the number of Vietnam veterans is actually somewhere around 9.2 million. Even more telling is how many Vietnam combat veterans are still alive today? The last veteran who served in the trenches was Harry Patch (British Army), who died on 25 July 2009, aged 111. Tom Selleck. We need a better more definitive for VIETNAM Vet. The first US advisors that I can find evidence of arrived in country in 1955. Based on them, and allowing for a couple of intervening years, there appear to be about 600,000 veterans still living who actually set foot in Vietnam or flew in the skies above it. Served most of my time on LZ Professional. How many Vietnamese citizens died in the Vietnam War? References:https://www.americanwarlibrary.com/personnel/vietvet.htmhttps://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/science/how-many-vietnam-veterans-are-still-alive.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War, The Armys FY 2023 budget request is ~$177.5 Billion. I suppose we were rear echelon, but I dispute anyone calling us REMF. A lot of guys broke out with rashes every time that sprayed for mosquitos, using Melithon, which was every 2 weeks over all Base Camps. Born in 1953, he joined the US Marine Corps at the age of 15 and was sent to Vietnam where he served as a machine gunner. Some, like myself did not serve a full 12month tour. Serving during the TET offensive and time after. i do not remember the moss but the went on quite a while. off the ship i went out with airforce on resupply, went out with troops through rubber plantations, ran from gunfire in saigon and chulon. VA released VetPop 2020 which is VA's new official estimate and projection of the Veteran population. Last one left was about 15 to 20 years ago. An overwhelming number are buried by family and friends. The way many of us were treated on returning from that war, but in truth it was only a war for very few of those who served there. I am a Viet Nam combat veteran. According to the American War Library, as of February 28, 2019, it is estimated that approximately 610,000 Americans who served in land forces during the Vietnam War or in air missions over Vietnam between 1954 and 1975 are still alive to this day. 3rd Brigade 4th ID attached to the 25th ID 111.40 & 112.40 later these became 11B.40 & 11C.40. I was C 3/17 Air Cav. Was I counted each time or once? The other number of significance is the number of Viet Nam veterans killed by Dow chemical. Question One: Are we talking Vietnam Veterans or Vietnam Era Veterans. In my Book if you didnt step foot in Nam Your sure not a Vietnam Vet, Period. We just hoped the pilot put us where we were supposed to be. If you are a pretender go stand in front of the mirror and tell that lie one more time so you can watch yourself steal the respect from an actual COMBAT VETERAN A/3/22 3rd Brigade 4th ID Dau Tieng 12/66 to 1/68. Aint this fun? NOTE: in 2010 Census 13.2 Million claimed to be Vietnam Veterans. I remember that the minute we came around the coast and headed up for Vung Tau, as merchantmen on American Export LInes ships, we got a sizeable war zone increase in our pay. it really did not matter, every officer had a masters license. I think 9+ million total in US military service during the peak years of the Vietnam War and 2.6 2.7 million in Nam and its waters and air space is right. So, where is the discrepancy in these numbers? Jorge Otero Barreto. Exhausted! many US MILITARY PERSONNELL served in Afghanistan from the start to when the last GI got on the last plane/helicopter out. Combat Veterans know who they are, pretenders know that they are not.. Door gunner with the 191st AHC Bounty Hunters. These numbers have come about due to the extensive research of various mortality indexes and sources by the American War Library which concluded that about one-third of those who served in the Vietnam War are still alive today. 4 Carl Dodd Former Police Officer Author has 18.5K answers and 25.3M answer views 10 mo retired university professor I do not doubt that it occurred, but can anyone cite a reliable source for this? What is the life expectancy of a Vietnam veteran? They are paying on Melathion settlements (Watch TV, and it as on 2 to 3% purity, used inside US) There are no living Veterans that I know of. Should be simple enough but not, Not all ships are blue water ships. we got one daily the other one weekly. Combat Veteran means being awarded a CIB. 2500 to 3000 US Air Force troops stationed in Guam, Thailand, and other countries that were involved in the Vietnam War effort. Heres a fact: Jeffery Lynn Scheller, USN, born July 31, 1954 was Killed In Action on October 1, 1972. But as to how many of us have died since then, I havent a clue. Fact: Everyone who served during the Vietnam War are classified as Vietnam Era Vets. State-Level Veteran Suicide Data: 2020 Update We did a lot of Ranch Hand missions in the iron Triangle. That means bullets where flying at me and I killed people in combat. They are NOT Veterans. Splitting out the numbers of combat and era vets are separate questions. Bien Hoa & Phu Bai, two badly polluted areas! I was on merchant ships for three years in viet nam. At 73 years, I plan on beating that date. However, any veteran who served in Vietnam between January 9, 1962, and May 7, 1975, is presumed by the VA to have been exposed to Agent Orange. Just because some idiot politician or people want to say you were not a war vet unless you saw combat dont feel bad most of those people found ways to evade even getting drafted. If you fired a weapon in defense, outside the wire,, and your boots were on the ground in VN you are a COMBAT vet. I would hope they are considered Vietnam combat Vets. As well, those who served in Thailand in late 1973-1975 are often looked down upon as not being real Vietnam Veterans. We are, as we helped conduct many support missions in the region, helped with draw assist during the fall of Cambodia, S. Vietnam and Laos. The 9 million was the total number of people in the military during 64-75 . 610,000 figure is more accurate., NYT was referring to VN Era Veterans. Our side would have collapsed without you. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. 45-50 years from now (and I bet no-one will want to Thank you for being there to help us when called. Presently, I approached the road to the top of PDL hill, and I was thinking what a beautiful day this would have been if this were some other place in some other world. I then did a 12 month tour in RVN in 5th SFG. A number 1/2 the peak, say 250,000 still seems high but would come closer to 3,000,000 number serving. I appreciate the fact that I Sam in the combat group that won the war against the communist rabble during their Tet Offensive in 1968. what i am saying is that there were all kinds of service, and if you think the definition is being in country and being shot at, then i qualify and so did my shipmates. There is a bird in India that says Did you Do it? How old is the youngest Vietnam veteran still alive? I heard them offen. Without a doubt Helicopter Crews are COMBAT VETS, to fly so low & slow over the most hidden turf below.. On landing at LZ Gold March 19, 1967 we lost 6 Hueys and 7 pilots. March 29, 1973Part of what was called Operation Homecoming, the first 20 POWs arrived to a heros welcome at Travis Air Force Base in California on February 14. Thats what we did in Vietnam we left and am glad we did. Things that they did not tell you. By the time I got to vin long the nva was gone and Charlie was pretty much non existent, he new we had snakes, the closest I got to him was when I was on the perimeter waiting for him to crawl thru the wire. Nha Trang (TET 68), how would you define a clerk typist who stayed in saigon and never went into the field. 23 Div and finally MACV Tm 87, 43 RCAT 18th ARVN Div. According to the Pentagons Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, there are currently 83,204 unaccounted for U.S. personnel, including 73,547 from World War II, 7,883 from the Korean War, 126 from the Cold War, 1,642 from the Vietnam War, and six from Iraq and other recent conflicts, including three Defense. and i abhor those who say they served when they were plumbers in texas and talk of medals they never earned. There are questions like this that are hard to answere as being true boots on ground. no problem with the spell checking. It is called the Stolen Valor Act., Dau Tieng A Co. 3/22 Inf. Do you by chance remember a Jim Blackshear? That is your opinion and youre entitled to it, I disagree very strongly. How were WWII veterans & Korean War Veterans accounted for? All others should not be accepted to have served either on land or at sea in Vietnam. Active duty 70-71, Quang Tri, Khe Sahn, Danny. Pop, POP POP. What was the life expectancy of a helicopter door gunner in Vietnam? I asked him to give me his number, he did not put a number on it just that he was Not. Approx 58,000 in Vietnam. I have had stage III melanoma, stage III squamous cell throat cancer and now stage II bladder cancer. Overall, the death rate of Vietnam veterans seems to be rather consistent if not better than other people their same age, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (LogOut/ Everything slowed down, and I was alone, above my body that was thrown into the dashboard hitting with my left side. no disrespect here. was i a veteran by the numbers? Non combat Vets served elsewhere. So, where is the discrepancy in these numbers? As stated in the previous post I too can spot a fake in 10 seconds. I believe you mean the malaria pill was once a week. This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. Not affiliated with any government agencies.All Rights Reserved. The Vietnam War was the nation's longest and costliest conflict of the Cold War. makes no diff, if you were a grunt or cook. earned their stripe. About 12 out of every 100 Gulf War Veterans (or 12%) have PTSD in a given year. It is difficult to say how many Vietnam veterans have been affected by Agent Orange. waited and waited for our slot in port. Their lives should be given importance. I give a silent prayer of thanks for all of you, every time I hear a chopper going by, even now. In WWII and the Korean War, anyone who served in the military was considered a veteran of that war. I was at 6 different LZs from Aug 67-Aug 68, with a 4th Medical Battalion aid station (D Company), and I never heard of a fuck you lizard. Served at Quang Tri Combat Base )QTCB) 71-72) Same here. even when i went out with the airforce on resupply to fire bases. Guys like me know the difference. That is exactly what I was going to post. Please respond! The number of people who are Vietnam veterans in the first place is a number that is widely debated. These numbers were not included since these service members were far removed from combat experience and did not spend any amount of time in harms way. (Mar 1969-Sep 70) 2/23, 196 LIB & 1/23 MP Co, 11 LIB, AMERICAL DIV. I find it best not to remember that time. They lost about 20 men KIA in late January, many captured. Me? if you read up on it you will see that ww2 merchant sailors were despised as cowards. My sister found enough info to get her husbands ship re-classified to a Brown Water ship due to his operation of a river boat and also medical evac of Marines, while he was assigned to the flagship, the Newport News, Prior to that any sailor who served aboard the Newport News, that applied for disability connected with Agent Orange, was denied. 9.2 million served on active duty (5 August 1964 to 7 May 1975) 2,590,000 served in the combat zone. The youngest Vietnam Veteran is aged in the late 60s today with life expectances estimated at 86 years old (for normal people). if you slept in the same bed more than 4 nights a week you were a REMF doesnt make you a abad guy but you are a remf. i went to dong ha several times. There are still a lot of us left by some miracle! To this day, I dont know how I was transported from the right-side dirt shoulder but ending up in the center of the dusty road. The New York Times, as always, gets it wrong. In the article, the writer quotes Patrick S. Brady of Vietnam Veterans of Americas magazine. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died. I agree, 10% in combat, sounds right! Hometown: New York City. How Many B 52S Were Shot Down During The Vietnam War? I knew place names like War Zone C, Filijo (rubber Plantation), Iron triangle, Bo Lo woods?, I was wounded on the Laos border near a fire base with the 101st. After Tet it was quiet. Operation Homecoming was completed on March 29, 1973, when the last of 591 U.S. prisoners were released and returned to the United States. It was also projected that, from here, 138,000 Vietnam veterans are expected to die each year. It served my pain well as a lifeless, mean spirited dark soul destroying everything in front of me. Active Duty: 473,000 My time stands still. So, with the lower estimate of 610,000, over 2.1 million VN vets have died since 1975 thats an average of 44,000/year. You go, brother! If my math is correct, are you going on 68 years old ? Please do all you can to inform our fellow vets that the VA presumes Agent Orange exposure if you were in-country. If one in ten saw sustained combat, then there may be as little as 60,000 of us left! I could never guess the number of actual Vietnam Vets there are, nor the % still alive. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors. The NOISE ringing in my ears, the torment, the muggy damn heat, and the distance echo of gunfire ALL STOPPED! Les, in IMHO being a Vietnam Veteran has nothing to do with combat. in any event, i went as soon as i was contacted by the draft board. Seems there are a lot of phony ones out there trying to scam the system which takes away from the true Vietnam Vets. He is absolutely obsessed with military and different men who have served, The definitive statistics come from the VAs Million Vietnam Vets database, which will continue until we are all gone. Mekong Delta US Army 1969. I was searching aria, even though these ruts are a real bitch! I was jostled and jerked by the truck over the dusty road. Hazardous duty pay was $65 and overseas pay varied by rank $8 to $ 16. I WOULD SURVIVE! Welcome home! I dont have a CIB to show for it, but I most certainly was in combat. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". . The exact percentage of surviving Vietnam War veterans is not known, but it is estimated to be around 25% of the total number of veterans who served during the war. ahead of me in the next row was a man conversing with another man about two rows ahead of him. Bless you and your family Those of us who live day to day with that medical time bomb know the pain you suffered before he passed, and the endless pain of loss ever after. I think there about 250,000 Virtnam Vets that saw actual combat. Got home after the war, never spoke about my service, never went hunting again, never cut my feeling back on! question. You were in Combat!!! A half century after serving in Vietnam, hundreds of veterans have a new reason to believe they may be dying from a silent bullet test results show some men may have been infected by a. While every GI serving around the world was important to securing our Cold War victory over Communism just as the Vietnam conflict was also, those who served in uniform in the SEA War Theater are the true veterans of the Vietnam War. I was the first male born to the Puccetti family after his death, so my parents received permission to name their son after Dante. we were all on the same side of the aisle. The oldest living Vietnam War veteran is believed to be a man named Larrivee Ronald A, who was born in Feb, 24, 1935. I understand that they only got about 300,000 of us, but that is a huge, decent number, considering how cynical we Nam vets can be about studies. Last I heard the database indicated that the Median Age of Death of Nam vets was reached at least three or four years ago. He was killed in action just a few months later. The veterans are a very important asset to the country. They used the same aircraft, and there was anything left in the aircraft, whatever the spray for the day was added, so you got both. Well thank God congress got it right putting the definition into law, otherwise those who served there would not be eligible for many VA benefits, particularly Agent Orange claims. Arrived in country March 1969, subsequently assigned to B Battery 1/14 Arty. for myself, being bored sometimes, and anxious to see and do more, i volunteered and went on a number of supply missions to the fire bases. Some advisors embassy guards, but all combat units left. We who were in Vietnam know who we are and dont need anyone telling us what they think. He showed me his DD214 and low and behold it says he was in Vietnam. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. No one paid any attention to them and this non-controversy continues. I concur with the 610,000 as the 850,000 remaining vets have been used for years and would be much lower by now. We all figured it was a Combat death. the average combat vet in Nam was 240 days. i think the definition should not be restricted by whether you wore khakis or como. My husband was one of those 191st Assault Helicopter Co. Bounty Hunter door gunners. That makes more sense. Having served two tours on the ground, as they say, I find it depressing. I raised my left leg and body up and pushed off that knee with my left hand. Another long time friend served on the Riverine Force actually served on John Kerrys boat and is mentioned prominently in his book, told me stories about being ambushed, as those boats made a lot of noise. What qualifies you as a viet Nam vet would be if you stepped foot on the soil. (1st time to operate a river boat 2nd time to evacuate injured Marines. As of 2015, more than 1,600 of those were still unaccounted-for. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) of the U.S. Department of Defense lists 687 U.S. POWs as having returned alive from the Vietnam War. These numbers do not include the Americans who served in Vietnam during World War II. A total of 9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the Vietnam era, with over 2,709,000 Americans serving in Vietnam, about 9.7% of the generation. Does receiving a few mortar rounds inside the wire of our compound count? As a retired Green Beret, his assessment and stats of the war are accurate. Vietnam was very different, it was not supported by our Nation, the draft of so many young men to fight in a country that few could ever find on a map, let alone now anything about. Antonia is a gifted educator, and she is widely respected within the education community. I entered an L shaped ambush. As you did not disclose what position you did or did not fill in Vietnam, or did not set foot in Vietnam, I will assume you are not a combat veteran, maybe not a Vietnam Veteran either. 11B20 and proud of it. The list of cancers gets longer with each passing year. We all bleed red. Depends on where you were. three years on and off in vietnam . Decades after the fall of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) many former soldiers still wonder why they were fighting. it is the duty of the community to stay behind their warriors to heal them and at the back of them when they come back. **********************************************************. In country Vietnam Vets are the only Vietnam Vets. If you served anywhere at all, anywherre during WWI, you are a WWI vet. Veterans support veterans, their stories and we bristle at those who would steal their history, we are not Valor Police, but those who pretend are an insult to those of who struggle with that past. I always ask those who claim to be Compare yourself to the Marines at Fallujah, if they are a 10, what number are you, Thanks for your comment! Thousands of sorties departed from Thailand, Guam, and from aircraft carriers at sea to kill MIGS, bomb factories and bridges, and generally create havoc. But having spent a little time thinking about it, I go with the 2m figure. We have been betrayed by all Globalists. The average age of our Vietnam veterans is now over 70. i do not denigrate their service or define them as inferior. It was an incredibly tumultuous time in US history and, for that reason, its unclear how many people actually served during this struggle. All the others are Vietnam ERA Vets. I struck a tree and rebounded into the open again still a sitting duck. Our 2003 NJAOC Desk Guide to the unique health issue of Nam vets and our children is still the Gold Standard. A few people were killed. My Company was A Co, 5th Trans Bn, 101st Abn. Melathion was 96% pure. War is Heck!!! The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. Bullets were flying everywhere, and the noise was tremendous. A Vietnam era veteran is certainly not a Veteran of the Vietnam War. i thank every soldier for their service, i do not exaggerate my actions. Your not a vet if you never stepped foot in another country. Today is Sun 22 Aug 2021 but the actual date HAS YET TO BE DETERMINED as the US is SENDING GIs BACK! in one way or another. I shipped to RVN on the USNS Geiger, manned by Merchant Marines, leaving Tacoma, WA on June 30, 1967 and arriving in Vung Tau on July 21, 1967. I pulled up to the local tailor shop to fix some of my fatigue pants. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. I had several Canadians in our Company in Vietnam. Jul 1971-19 Dec 1971) 29th CA Co, XXIV Corps (Danang). Lying on my back in the underbrush, watching the blue sky, bleeding on the jungle floor alone. Serious danger along those river banks. I served in Quang Tri (70-71) and took two types of Malaria pills. Another 2,000,000 were in country but worked supply or support [based on 10% rule]. We saved many a guy after you brought him to us from the boonies. Wiki User. To not count us is disrespecting us who also answered the call. Vince. A Co. 2/8th, First Cavalry, 1968-69. So I was in the Army National Guard during the Iraq War, So I guess I am An Iraq War Veteran. I wonder if I was not Dante- would I have the inspiration to survive? The New York Times reported that claims like those of the American War Library are false and that, instead of only one-third of Vietnam vets remaining, the number points to more than 75 percent of Vietnam veterans still living and breathing today.