Topic: Vietnam Veterans

[IndyShark]

I found this to be a very powerful and interesting email. I hope you enjoy reading it and think about all of those brave men and women.

Subject: Viet Nam Veteran Statistics

 This is sobering....... A little history most people will never know.

Interesting Veterans Statistics off the Vietnam Memorial Wall

"Carved on these walls is the story of America , of a continuing quest
to preserve both Democracy and decency, and to protect a national
treasure that we call the American dream."  ~President George Bush

SOMETHING to think about - Most of the surviving Parents are now
Deceased.

There are 58,267 names now listed on that polished black wall,
including those added in 2010.

The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by
date and within each date the names are alphabetized. It is hard to
believe it is 36 years since the last casualties.

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. Thus the war's beginning and end meet. The war is complete,
coming full circle, yet broken by the earth that bounds the angle's
open side and contained within the earth itself.

The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth ,
Mass. Listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having been killed on
June 8, 1956. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son,
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on
Sept. 7, 1965.


·        There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall.

·        39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger.

·        8,283 were just 19 years old.

A.        The largest age group, 33,103 were 18 years old.

·        12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old.

·        5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old.

·        One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years old.

·        997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam .

·        1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam .

·        31 sets of brothers are on the Wall.

·        Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their sons.

·        54 soldiers on attended Thomas Edison High School in
Philadelphia . I wonder why so many from one school?

·        8 Women are on the Wall. Nursing the wounded.

·        244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the
Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall.

·        Beallsville , Ohio with a population of 475 lost 6 of her
sons.

·        West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the
nation. There are 711 West Virginians on the Wall.

·        The Marines of Morenci - They led some of the scrappiest high
school football and basketball teams that the little Arizona copper
town of Morenci (pop. 5,058) had ever known and cheered. They enjoyed
roaring beer busts. In quieter moments, they rode horses along the
Coronado Trail, stalked deer in the Apache National Forest . And in the
patriotic camaraderie typical of Morenci's mining families, the nine
graduates of Morenci High enlisted as a group in the Marine Corps.
Their service began on Independence Day, 1966. Only 3 returned home.

·        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. They
lived only a few yards apart. They played ball at the adjacent sandlot
ball field. And they all went to Vietnam . In a span of 16 dark days in
late 1967, all three would be killed. LeRoy was killed on Wednesday,
Nov. 22, the fourth anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination.
Jimmy died less than 24 hours later on Thanksgiving Day. Tom was shot
dead assaulting the enemy on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

·        The most casualty deaths for a single day was on January 31,
1968 ~ 245 deaths.

·        The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 -
2,415 casualties were incurred.


For most Americans who read this they will only see the numbers that
the Vietnam War created. To those of us who survived the war, and to
the families of those who did not, we see the faces, we feel the pain
that these numbers created. We are, until we too pass away, haunted
with these numbers, because they were our friends, fathers, husbands,
wives, sons and daughters. There are no noble wars, just noble warriors.