The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized. but will allow you to download it after you specify a file name. person reads for 20 minutes, (270 names) this will require 216 volunteer name 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. The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 2,415 casualties were incurred. Written requests should be mailed to: National Personnel Records Center, 9700 Page Ave., St. Louis, MO 63132-5100. This change prompted the addition of 110 names in 1986. Of 2,590 total Air Force casualties, 1,674 or 65 percent were officers. In the military it can be somewhat more deadly. The ship had been taken to the island of Koh Tang. 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. 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. 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. Your donation to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund will help expand our mission to honor, educate and heal. The Marine Corps lost 14,836, or 5 percent of its own men. Naval History & Heritage CommandWashington Navy Yard, Bldg 57 (3rd Floor)Washington, DC 20374Telephone: (202) 433-3224, Marine CorpsU.S. the requirements were expanded (by. In quieter moments, they rode horses along the Coronado Trail, stalked deer in the Apache National Forest. John Kennedy, discussing military assignments, said that, life is unfair. Those designated by a plus sign were considered to be missing in action when the war ended. At the time, approximately 1,300 names were designated as servicemen who were either missing or prisoners of war. Most of these casualties are documented in the Military Index, a FamilySearch file. 244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall. 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. 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. The Wall of Faces allows family and friends to share memories, post pictures and connect with each other. 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. Some are drawn to the Wall like pilgrims to Mecca. Buis can be found at the top middle of a slab designated Panel 1E. Army Center of Military History103 3rd AvenueFort Lesley J. McNair, DC 20319-5058Telephone: (202) 685-4042, NavyU.S. 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. Inscription at the beginning of The Wall. 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. We were being fired upon by anti-aircraft guns. Compounding these difficulties was the issue that many casualties, particularly from the Air Force, were not always straightforward in terms of locale. 5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old. The article was originally published in the June 1993 issue of Vietnam Magazine and updated in November 2004. 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. The beginnings and endings are often hazy and the facts of the story lie at the mercy of the teller. Fill out the tour request form. The widely held notion that the poor served and died in Vietnam while the rich stayed home is way off the mark. Those who could have qualified for college probably did not have the funds or motivation. The Vietnam War is no different. They were at their peak physically. Yet, a civilian heroine who served in a different capacity during that difficult time also merits particular acknowledgment. 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. In addition, millions of documents had been lent to the Department of Veterans Affairs before the fire occurred. Adding to the problem was Project 100,000. The unit diary portion of the muster roll should indicate when members of the Lima Company, 3rd platoon. On the last day of his life, in the moments before our nations history changed forever, Dale Buis was sitting around a rec center watching a movie called The Tattered Dress, starring Jeff Chandler. The VC had commandeered Air America Hueys, and they were flying them around, which simply made for a very interesting chess game. They also died quickly, many within a few weeks or months of arriving in Vietnam. 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 information regarding official military unit histories, contact: Air ForceU.S. Millions more come to experience this Memorial each year. 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. VVMF does not have the authority to overrule those who adjudicate these matters. 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. 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. the reader loses composure. 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. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. Look at the bottom of each panel on the wall for its number. The central idea of the poem is that the Vietnamese War took hundreds of lives away from the United States of America. He would become instrumental in helping Doubek identify names and check spellings. Jimmy died less than 24 hours later on Thanksgiving Day. Black leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., protested, and President Johnson ordered black participation in combat units cut back. Be the first to learn about news, service member stories and fundraising updates from USO. 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. AGE 17 TO 21 PREFERRED ARMY AND MARINE COMBAT MATERIAL. To put a circle around the symbol beside their names would not provide the correct historical context related to their situation. Coast Guard casualties are included in the Navy totals. The job of cross-referencing the information of individual branches with the DoD fell to Doubek. This is close to, but not exactly in the same order As a result, the black casualty rate was reduced to 11.5 percent by 1969. The first two names listed on Panel 1, East Wall, at the apex are from July 8, 1959. As of 2017, there are 58,318 names inscribed on The Wall. Blacks were 85 percent Protestant. Marlin on March 19, 1967 and Norman on August 18, 1968 Brothers Bennett and Dennis Herrick were both killed in Vietnam. But there is a beginning. 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. The resulting aptitude scores were used to classify entrants into four categories and this would, for the most part, determine their subsequent assignments. Army Major Dale Buis' name is etched into the granite half an inch tall, no bigger or smaller than any of the others. The names of Army Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand and Major Dale Buis are inscribed on Panel 1E of the Vietnam War Memorial Wall. Chronological order by date of casualty allows friends and family members to pick out their loved one from all of the others with the same name. As she wisely predicted, this would help bring the veterans back in timeand a cathartic healing would occur for many by facing this loss again.. Locate the corresponding panel at the Memorial. On July 12, 1973, a disastrous fire at the NPRC destroyed approximately 16-18 million Official Military Personnel Files. Buis died, as did Army Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand, whose name is second on the wall. 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. 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 casual visitor might not immediately recognize that Buis name is the first. 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. If the veteran is still alive, ask his or her help finding records. Why are names added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall? 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. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today! 997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam. These young men were trained quickly and shipped to Vietnam quickly. 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. Getting to Washington, D.C. It is hard to believe it has been 36 years since the last casualties. 39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger. This was long before the advent of integrated computer databases. 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. In civilian life, poor aptitude testing can have a tremendous negative impact, whether for college placement or for simple job advancement. This came at a time when blacks made up 11 percent of the male population nationwide. Doubek was tasked with identifying all of the names to be included on the Wall. These casualties came largely from the Northeast and North Central regions of the United States, many from the traditionally patriotic, Catholic working class neighborhoods. 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. 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. This video can help you find the name of someone you'd like to honor. I went through the whole list of names eight times, because I was concerned about the correct formatting, remembered Doubek. The draft policy at the time of the Vietnam War was called the Universal Military Training and Service Act. 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. If your browser displays the text file, you can then use Authority Record - NARA, Records of the U.S. 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. Non-Archival records are those of service members who separated from the military less than 62 years ago. It is more notable, perhaps, only because his was the first name engraved into The Wall. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall USA website is dedicated to honoring those who died in the Vietnam War. 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. As Maya Ling Lin, the architect of the Wall, has said: It was as if the black-brown earth were polished and made into an interface between the sunny world and the quiet dark world beyond that we cannot enter. Ninety-one percent of these Army officers were warrant officers, second lieutenants, first lieutenants or captains. 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. . 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. This approach would allow veterans, friends and family members to find a loved one by his or her date of casualty. Non-perishable items are archived in a storage facility. And, as in every American war, it is the very young who are the most willing to volunteer. If each If a name was particularly long, it would be swapped with a shorter name. 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. These directories help locate names on the wall. 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. Derek Turner is a freelance writer and a former senior editor of On Patrol. In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Selective Training and Service Act, creating the countrys first peacetime draft and officially establishing the Selective Service System. National Mall and Memorial Parks , Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Download the official NPS app before your next visit. They played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. 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. Several hundred such designation changes have been made since the Wall was built in 1982. 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. Officer casualties in Vietnam, including warrant officers, numbered 7,874, or 13.5 percent of all casualties. Sad to say, many of these recruitment promises were fudged in one way or another, and many of these young men found themselves shipped directly to Vietnam after basic training. 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. 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. The DOD percentages reveal that nearly 75 percent of Army enlisted casualties were privates or corporals. Beallsville, Ohio with a population of 475 lost 6 of her sons.