True enough, but many of the surviving Vietnam casualty families would reply that the ultimate unfairness is death at an early age, in a land far from home, for reasons not clearly defined. Authority Record - NARA, Records of the U.S. Frequently Asked Questions - Vietnam Veterans Memorial (U.S. National 54 soldiers on the Wall attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia. 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. Only the Navy, with 50 percent of its enlisted casualties over 21, and the Air Force, with 75 percent over 21, showed an older, more experienced age demographic. 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. Non-perishable items are archived in a storage facility. More names are added to the wall every year. 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. 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. The draft continued from 1948, during both peacetime and war, to 1973, when President Richard M. Nixon signed legislation officially ending the draft. Access to Non-Archival Military Service Records is limited. 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. person reads for 20 minutes, (270 names) this will require 216 volunteer name While VVMF finances the name additions to the Wall, it is the Department of Defense that makes these difficult and often technical decisions. The Marine Corps lost 14,836, or 5 percent of its own men. Doubek contacted the National Personnel Records Center, Archives and Records Service, in St. Louis, Mo. 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. It was fitting that Vandegeer finally returned home to American soil, because he spent his last weeks at war evacuating Americans as Saigon fell. Though blessed with talent, his life wasnt without struggles. The National Archives has an online searchable database, entitled "Records on Military Personnel Who Died, Were Missing in Action or Prisoners of War as a Result of the Vietnam War," documenting the period 6/8/1956 - 1/21/1998. 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. As of 2017, there are 58,318 names inscribed on The Wall. The first Americans to die did not perish in a foxhole or beneath stars obscured by a jungle canopy. Vandegeers message also depicted a man who believed the worst was behind him. Tom was killed while assaulting the enemy on Dec. 7, Pearl HarborDay. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) study released in 1992, found that our Vietnam casualties were only marginally greater from the economically lowest 50 percent of our communities (31 deaths per 100,000 of population), when compared with the economically highest 50 percent (26 deaths per 100,000 population). She wanted the names to tell the journey, or the timeline, of the war. 8 Women are on the Wall. 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). It ripped men from their loved ones, family, friends, and it left a wave of death in its path. There was no need to embellish. Inscribed dots in the margins of every other panel mark every 10 lines to aid in counting. They enjoyed roaring beer busts. 1970 - ca. The largest age group, 8,283 were just 19 years old. site, for searching with a word processor. 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. 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. and have two columns per page, rather than only one column. If each 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. 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 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 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. 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. 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. 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. It may come as a surprise to some that 63.3 percent of all Vietnam enlisted casualties were not draftees but volunteers. Thus, the wars beginning and end meet. The files are quite large in order that we could save in Rich Text Format 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. EIN: 52-1149668, Copyright 2023 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display. Search the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s database of names on the wall. You may print these files and have the pages available for visitors to U.S. Army Personnel and Dependent Casualties, 1961-1981 85% of the records in this database are related to the Vietnam Conflict. Individual Award Case Files, 1969 - 1970. The Selective Service System remains in place today. 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. Early in the war (1965 and 1966) when blacks made up about 11 percent of our Vietnam force, black casualties soared to more than 20 percent of the total. They seem honored to be putting the names on the Wall.. The war is complete, coming full circle, yet broken by the earth that bounds the angles open side and contained within the earth itself. that each name was a real person. The Reading of the Names - Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund The slabs meet at a vertex of 125 degrees, 10 feet above ground level to form the Wall. In 2004, the total is 58,241 names. 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 Vietnam Registry - Connecting our Veterans and Stewarding their Stories No duplicate copies of the records that were destroyed in the fire were maintained, nor was a microfilm copy ever produced. On the other end of that phone call was an former Air Force officer who had served in Vietnam. The Vietnam Wall. 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. Interested in a tour as part of your visit? Except for the last file, there are approximately 10,000 names per file. . Compounding these difficulties was the issue that many casualties, particularly from the Air Force, were not always straightforward in terms of locale. Your donation to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund will help expand our mission to honor, educate and heal. There are 711 West Virginians on the Wall. United States. 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. 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. The appearance of DoD visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement. 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 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. 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. VVMF does not have the authority to overrule those who adjudicate these matters. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. 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. To put a circle around the symbol beside their names would not provide the correct historical context related to their situation. 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. Please be patient The burden of combat fell on the very available non-college-bound young. If the veteran is still alive, ask his or her help finding records. Are the names on the Vietnam Memorial in alphabetical order? Look at the bottom of each panel on the wall for its number. An aunt came and loaded the three boys into the car. Thus, there were 211,455 killed and wounded, or one in every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam. See Access to Non-Archival Records for more information. The last 18 names listed on the bottom of Panel 1, West, also at the apex, are from May 15, 1975. Therefore, a complete listing of the records that were lost is not available. More Info At www.themovingwall.org Visit site Many of them, as experienced pilots, were older (two thirds were thirty or older) and many were high ranking. These names are followed by the inscription: Our nation honors the courage, sacrifice and devotion to duty and country of its Vietnam veterans. How many Smiths can there possibly be who died in Vietnam? for all 58,228 names to be read aloud. Although the names are not listed alphabetically, it is not difficult for visitors to find a name on the Memorial. There is no question that all segments of American society were represented. All would be represented equally, with generals listed alongside infantrymen. And mores the pity, because many of them were trying to escape this background and didnt make it. At some The Moving Wall sites, the sponsor makes arrangements The Vietnam War is no different. 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. 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. Those designated by a plus sign were considered to be missing in action when the war ended. Making these arrangements and printing the pages takes considerable Locate the corresponding panel at the Memorial. Getting to Washington, D.C. Written requests should be mailed to: National Personnel Records Center, 9700 Page Ave., St. Louis, MO 63132-5100. 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. 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. There are over 58,000 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. And they all went to Vietnam. 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. November 11, 1982. 5th Marines were killed in . History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. These young men were trained quickly and shipped to Vietnam quickly. Doubek was tasked with identifying all of the names to be included on the Wall. The Vietnam Wall - vva310.org Protestants were 64.4 percent (37,483), Catholics were 28.9 percent (16,806). The panels are numbered beginning from the center out toward the ends of each wall. 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. On November 7, 2021 VVMF began a daily virtual Reading of the Names. Several hundred such designation changes have been made since the Wall was built in 1982. Along with its wave of death, it scarred many people, especially those closest to the men that died fighting the . The article was originally published in the June 1993 issue of Vietnam Magazine and updated in November 2004. Learn more about featured topics of the Vietnam War and Vietnam Era. Virtual Wall of Faces almost complete, needs remaining photos - VA News The affected record collections are described below. IN MEMORY HONOR ROLL - Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund In civilian life, poor aptitude testing can have a tremendous negative impact, whether for college placement or for simple job advancement. 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. The draft policy at the time of the Vietnam War was called the Universal Military Training and Service Act. Plan a Visit - Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund He was a Navy enlisted man during World War II and has a degree in Political Science from Duke University. If a service member were to return alive, a circlethe symbol of lifewould be inscribed around the plus sign. The names would become the memorial. We honor and remember their sacrifice.". 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. Another challenge was ensuring the accuracy of the names. Marlin on March 19, 1967 and Norman on August 18, 1968 Brothers Bennett and Dennis Herrick were both killed in Vietnam. There are 58,267 names now listed on Vietnam Wall, including those added in 2010. The Names - Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund The Names When the Wall was dedicated in 1982, there were 57,939 names inscribed. They were at their peak physically. With this list in hand, he went to the various locations where individual service records were kept to review files. It specified the geographic areas of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and surrounding coastal areas as combat zones. Learn more about featured topics of the Vietnam War and Vietnam Era. Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics, Korean War and Vietnam War casualties listed at the National Archives, Hospital Admission Card Files, ca. It is hard to believe it is 36 years since the last casualties. Only 10 percent of enlisted men had even some college to their credit and only 1 percent were college graduates. Dates of enlsitment or selective service registration will be helpful along with the name military units they served with. Naval History & Heritage CommandWashington Navy Yard, Bldg 57 (3rd Floor)Washington, DC 20374Telephone: (202) 433-3224, Marine CorpsU.S. The popularity of the GI Bill after Vietnam emphasized this yearning. The Army suffered the most total casualties, 38,179 or 2.7 percent of its force. For information regarding official military unit histories, contact: Air ForceU.S. 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 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. Alphabetical List Of Vietnam Veterans : Top Picked from our Experts His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. If officers are added, then almost 70 percent of those who died were volunteers. This approach would allow veterans, friends and family members to find a loved one by his or her date of casualty. Eight women were killed in Vietnam, five Army lieutenants, one Army captain, one Army lieutenant colonel and one Air Force captain. There are students on field trips, some solemn and curious, but some just happy to get out of class. How Many Names are on the Vietnam Wall in 2023 - Name Checks 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 names of those who gave their lives and of those who remain missing are inscribed in the order they were taken from us. Vietnam Veterans Memorial Directory - National Park Service Inscription at the beginning of The Wall. It is hard to believe it has been 36 years since the last casualties. Almost 50 percent were majors, lieutenant-colonels, colonels and three were generals. This, they felt, would offer these men the opportunity to get remedial training in the service and then be able to compete successfully when they returned to civilian life. 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.
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