LeRoy was killed on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the fourth anniversary of President John F. Kennedys assassination. How many names are on the wall? 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. The names are listed in chronological order, according to the date of casualty. The Vietnam War is no different. The Names - Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund The Names When the Wall was dedicated in 1982, there were 57,939 names inscribed. The officer corps has always drawn heavily on English/Scottish/Welsh, German, Irish and Scandinavian-American ancestries from middle-class white collar homes, with other large percentages from ambitious working class blue collar and, of course, career military families. 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. 997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. The very young were considered by many to be preferred combat material. 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. Protestants were 64.4 percent (37,483), Catholics were 28.9 percent (16,806). The USO is a not-for-profit organization and not part of the Department of Defense (DoD). 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). This is close to, but not exactly in the same order as the names on the Wall. On Patrol caught up with Pete Peterson to find out how the U.S.-Vietnam relationship has progressed since the normalization of ties in 1995. . 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. 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. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. By and large, with the exception of the officer corps, most of the college bound and educated skipped the Vietnam War at the urging of, and with the approval of, their own government. No duplicate copies of the records that were destroyed in the fire were maintained, nor was a microfilm copy ever produced. The civilian and military men who formed the policy did not see it necessarily as a disadvantage. The individual Draft Registration Card (SSS Form 1) may contain information such as: name, Selective Service registration number, age, date and place of birth, ethnicity, place of residence at time of registration and basic physical description. Richard Sandza received the message on the morning of May 15, 1975, the day his friend became the last American to die in combat during the Vietnam War. And they often show a heartbreakingly wry sense of humor with the same sensibilities as their college-bound peers. 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. compiled by Military Records and Research Library, Department of Military Affairs; edited by Julia D. Rather and Jeffrey Michael Duff, Research Our Records. Officer casualties in Vietnam, including warrant officers, numbered 7,874, or 13.5 percent of all casualties. The slabs meet at a vertex of 125 degrees, 10 feet above ground level to form the Wall. Every one of the names on the Wall has a story worth telling, as do all who served in our nation's Armed Forces during that time. During the Vietnam War, the Navy and Air Force became substantially white enclaves enlisted and officer casualties were 96 percent white. A more precise equation would be that the college bound stayed home while the non-college bound served and died. The ship had been taken to the island of Koh Tang. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. All other individual draftee files from that period were destroyed by the Selective Service System in 1978, in accordance with approved records retention schedules. The DOD percentages reveal that nearly 75 percent of Army enlisted casualties were privates or corporals. The Air Force lost the highest percentage of officers. The shining surface is intended to reflect the sun, the ground and those who stand before it. Fallen comrades could be together on the Wall, as theyd been in death. Instead its nearly in the center. Each name is listed with great honor and respect. 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. 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). There are 58,267 names now listed on Vietnam Wall, including those added in 2010. The Wall of Faces allows family and friends to share memories, post pictures and connect with each other. While their names are not on The Wall, they are never forgotten. The affected record collections are described below. Look for discharge papers, pictures, medals,etc. Eight women were killed in Vietnam, five Army lieutenants, one Army captain, one Army lieutenant colonel and one Air Force captain. 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. 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 of this was one of the great and abiding agonies of the Vietnam War, causing repercussions within families and on the national political scene to this day. Individual Award Case Files, 1969 - 1970. . A few years after the dedication, the issue of geographic criteria was expanded by DoD to include people who had been killed outside of the war zone while on or in support of direct combat missions. Naval Academy, 130; Texas A & M, 112; The Citadel, 66; Virginia Military Institute, 43; Virginia Polytechnic Institute, 26; Norwich University, 19. The VC had commandeered Air America Hueys, and they were flying them around, which simply made for a very interesting chess game. Thus we can see that the channeling philosophy continued within the armed forces. These young men were trained quickly and shipped to Vietnam quickly. The names are inscribed in the chronological order of their dates of casualty, showing the war as a series of individual human sacrifices and giving each name a special place in history. The panels are numbered beginning from the center out toward the ends of each wall. prepared by Frances A. Hortsch for the Phoenix Genealogical Society. Though blessed with talent, his life wasnt without struggles. 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. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. 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. VVMF receives numerous requests each year from individuals who wish to have particular names added to the Memorial. Search the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s database of names on the wall. Adding to the problem was Project 100,000. 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. John Kennedy, discussing military assignments, said that, life is unfair. U.S. Army Personnel and Dependent Casualties, 1961-1981 85% of the records in this database are related to the Vietnam Conflict. The first two names listed on Panel 1, East Wall, at the apex are from July 8, 1959. Their service began on Independence Day, 1966. This amounted to 4.1 percent of all enlisted casualties in Vietnam. 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. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. Beside each name is a symbol that denotes a service members status: either missing or confirmed dead. 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. They were struggling through or dropping out of high school, or if a high school graduate, had tested poorly for college entrance. 54 soldiers on the Wall attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia. The draft continued from 1948, during both peacetime and war, to 1973, when President Richard M. Nixon signed legislation officially ending the draft. 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. In a massive sampling of the database, it was established that between 5 and 6 percent of Vietnam dead had identifiable Hispanic surnames. Senate. And there would be nothing to denote service or rank. They refer to older or younger siblings who are either in or on their way to college. Photo credit DOD photo. 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. 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. Most of these casualties are documented in the Military Index, a FamilySearch file. since it was dedicated because additional casualty records were found and Beginning Research in United States Military Records, National Vietnam War Veterans Day - Wikepedia, National Park Service Vietnam Veterans Memorial. EIN: 52-1149668, Copyright 2023 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display. 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 last 18 names listed on the bottom of Panel 1, West, also at the apex, are from May 15, 1975. Concerning, How do I find a name on the Vietnam War Memorial wall? Physical examination and test results, medical letters, laboratory work and other medical documentation that may have been included in these files no longer exist. The Vietnam Wall at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park features the names of local fallen soldiers. EIN: 52-1149668, Copyright 2023 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display. The panel numbers are inscribed at the bottom of each panel. The Selective Service System remains in place today. 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 Except for the last file, there are approximately 10,000 names per file. In high school, he joined ROTC and kept his fathers medals pinned next to his own awards on a piece of crimson cloth. | This page has been viewed 167,336 times (0 via redirect). Doubek contacted the National Personnel Records Center, Archives and Records Service, in St. Louis, Mo. There are 58,267 names now listed on Vietnam Wall, including those added in 2010. The Buddies of Midvale LeRoy Tafoya, Jimmy Martinez, Tom Gonzales were all boyhood friends and lived on three consecutive streets in Midvale, Utah on Fifth, Sixth and Seventh avenues. THE NAMES ON THE WALL: AN HISTORICAL JUDGMENT. Many high-ranking military men (including General William C. Westmoreland, the U.S. commander in Vietnam) opposed the program, feeling that the effectiveness of some units would be reduced and that fellow soldiers would sometimes be put in greater jeopardy by these less mentally capable personnel. Coast Guard Historians OfficeCommandant (CG-09224)U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters 2100 Second Street SW Washington, D.C. 20593. Lower end category IVs consisting of those who scored below 20 on the AFQT were usually rejected for service. in chronological order of the casualty date and then alphabetical by last the reader loses composure. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today! Army Major Dale Buis name is etched into the granite half an inch tall, no bigger or smaller than any of the others. Download our app to find events, locations and programs near you. 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. Text STOP to opt out, HELP for help. The names of Army Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand and Major Dale Buis are inscribed on Panel 1E of the Vietnam War Memorial Wall. Who were they? Despite their inexperience, they were thought to accept discipline readily. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. has the names listed in chronological order by date of loss. The result: no comprehensive master list of Vietnam War casualties existed. Coast Guard casualties are included in the Navy totals. Locate the corresponding panel at the Memorial. In 2004, the total is 58,241 names. As a region, the South experienced the greatest numbers of dead, nearly 34 percent of the total, or 31.0 deaths per 100,000 of population. More than 200 names have been added to the Wall Air Force Historical Research Agency 600 Chenault Circle Maxwell AFB, AL 36112-6424Telephone: (334) 953-2395, ArmyU.S. Note that the files are large, and are in Rich Text Format (RTF), with two However, if officer casualties are added to the total, then this overrepresentation is reduced to 12.5 percent of all casualties. 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. 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. The first group, added in 1983, included 53 Marines who were killed when their R&R (rest and relaxation) flight crashed in Hong Kong. 1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam. 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. Some common names appear on the Memorial more than once. It would also enable veterans to find groups of friends who died during the same incident. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept. 7, 1965. 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. Every day, Americas service members selflessly put their lives on the line to keep us safe and free. The Navy fatalities were 2,556 or 2 percent. They drew on every segment of American society. As Vietnam War Veterans Day nears March 29, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation's Wall of Faces is nearly complete but needs help from the public to track down the last few dozen photos. If the veteran is still alive, ask his or her help finding records. Order it can be difficult but there are a few ways to find a name at either end of the memorial are stands with books inside these list the names in alphabetical. The Army lost the greatest number of officers 4,635 or 59 percent of all officer casualties. Its still fought in the bodies and minds of the men who waged it all those decades ago. NAID 5709942, U.S. Air Force Historical Research Agency, National Archives Command Chronologies:Vietnam War, National Archives Command Chronologies: Vietnam War: Index to Reports, National Archves. But after World War II a kind of educational apartheid had settled over the United States. You must refer to a database, which gives the names in alphabetical order and includes the position of each on the Memorial. The Vietnam Wall. 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. In an effort to further preserve the legacy of those who sacrificed all in Vietnam, VVMF is committed to finding a photo to go with each of the more than 58,000 names on The Wall. The burden of combat fell on the very available non-college-bound young. 1972, United States, National Archives, Military Records, 1885-2004, United States, National Archives, Korean War and Vietnam War Records, Start your Military Service Record Request, National Archives at St. Louis, Selective Service Records. Inscription at the beginning of The Wall. The appearance of DoD visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement. Patricia Krause. 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. The names of those who gave their lives and of those who remain missing are inscribed in the order they were taken from us. This page was last edited on 12 December 2022, at 18:28. The article was originally published in the June 1993 issue of Vietnam Magazine and updated in November 2004. There are officially 58,228 names on the Wall, but the database these files were derived . These names are followed by the inscription: Our nation honors the courage, sacrifice and devotion to duty and country of its Vietnam veterans. 244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on 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.. Postscript: Since 1982, there have been 89 names added to The Wall. By providing your mobile phone number, you opt in to receive calls and texts from USO. They came largely from California and Texas, with lesser numbers from Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Florida, New York and a few from many other states across the country. Vietnam War Casualties- Main Alphabetical Index www.VirtualWall.org Find A Name Information Memorial pages honoring Vietnam War casualties, listed by their last names. 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. do this, be sure to have an alternate reader assigned to take over in case How to Order a Draft Record. You could also keep these files on a computer at your Some recent studies tend to refute what had been the perceived wisdom of social scientists and other commentators that our Vietnam dead came overwhelmingly from the poor communities. They went for a ride and she gently told them that their father would not be coming home. United States. 1970 - ca. that each name was a real person. A correspondingly greater tradition of military service in the other regions had its effect on U.S. regional casualties. Some are drawn to the Wall like pilgrims to Mecca. Gather facts from sources at home,and talk to relatives. 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. site, for searching with a word processor. 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 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. Buis was in Vietnam by his own volition. 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. 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. Twenty years passed before Vandegeers remains were identified and another five passed before his funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. Bennett on March 25, 1968 and Dennis on August 02, 1970 Brothers Gabriel and Paul Trujillo were both killed in Vietnam. 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 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. It should be noted, however, that the draft was specifically designed to trigger volunteer enlistments. Early on President Johnson, his advisers and especially the Congress, realized that if the draft was to be truly equitable and had included combat assignments in Vietnam for the sons of the educationally advantaged and influential Americans from the professional and managerial classes, then the resulting uproar would have shut down the war. Lins vision prevailed. 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. 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 event begins on November 7, 2022 at 3 p.m. EST and ends at midnight on November 10, 2022. This year, 14 names were etched into the wall. Its now one of the most popular memorials in Washington. Some have tried for years before receiving approval from DoD. His name does not appear at either far end. (Surprisingly, as it turned out, the percentage of Vietnam veterans who applied for the GI Bill was higher than either World War II or Korea. Count down from the top of the panel. 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. With the glitch discovered, Doubek and his team located and hand-corrected each error. In an effort to further preserve the legacy of those who sacrificed all in Vietnam, VVMF is committed to finding a photo to go with each of the more than 58,000 names on The Wall. 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. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. This can help veterans or relatives find other persons who died with 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. Charles Holley; chief editor, Robert J. Martin, 4th Infantry Division. 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 names are listed chronologically by date of death, the first to last. The 1970 census which is being used as our Vietnam era population base did not list an Hispanic count but gave an estimate of 4.5 percent of the American population. In addition, millions of documents had been lent to the Department of Veterans Affairs before the fire occurred. He was a Navy enlisted man during World War II and has a degree in Political Science from Duke University. This can be in the form of a book, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Directory of Names, or one of the various databases. The central idea of the poem is that the Vietnamese War took hundreds of lives away from the United States of America. VVMF does not have the authority to overrule those who adjudicate these matters. It gives the names in alphabetical order and . For a photograph of an inscription of a close friend or relative, write: This website requires a paid subscription for full access. This is close to, but not exactly in the same order as the names on the Wall. A.. B.. C.. D.. E.. F.. G.. H.. Her name? History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. 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.
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