alphabetical list of names on the vietnam wall alphabetical list of names on the vietnam wall

It ripped men from their loved ones, family, friends, and it left a wave of death in its path. 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. LeRoy was killed on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the fourth anniversary of President John F. Kennedys assassination. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. | 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. 1972 NAID 305367, Silver Star Medal and Legion of Merit Award Case Files, 19711971 NAID 5721359. John Kennedy, discussing military assignments, said that, life is unfair. 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. 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. Folded American flags were presented to his parents and an Air Force helicopter flew over the ceremony. ".for those who have died." 5th Marines were killed in . 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. NAVY AND AIR FORCE OFFICER CASUALTIES BY RANK AND AGE. Though 13 were rescued at sea, the rest died, either upon impact or soon after. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. the "save as" menu command to store each text file on your media. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated on November 10, 1982, with 57,939 names. 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). 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. 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. The chronological order allows veterans who were in a battle to see their friends forever united on the Wall, he explained. 244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall. The young enlisted volunteer or draftee had not had much time to form any complicated theories about our Vietnam commitment. You may print these files and have the pages available for visitors to The most casualty deaths for a single day was on January 31, 1968 245 deaths. The DOD percentages reveal that nearly 75 percent of Army enlisted casualties were privates or corporals. Why are names added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall? The Air Force lost 2,580 or l percent. They refer to older or younger siblings who are either in or on their way to college. The draftee, if found physically and mentally fit, would be inducted for a period of two years, to be followed by another two year period in the active reserves and a subsequent two years in the inactive reserves. Protestants were 64.4 percent (37,483), Catholics were 28.9 percent (16,806). but will allow you to download it after you specify a file name. A.. B.. C.. D.. E.. F.. G.. H.. Compounding these difficulties was the issue that many casualties, particularly from the Air Force, were not always straightforward in terms of locale. Ninety-one percent of these Army officers were warrant officers, second lieutenants, first lieutenants or captains. Inscribed dots in the margins of every other panel mark every 10 lines to aid in counting. 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. 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. 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 most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. The figures show that on average 65 percent of white enlisted men and 60 percent of black enlisted men were high school graduates. It is more notable, perhaps, only because his was the first name engraved into The Wall. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. Of 2,590 total Air Force casualties, 1,674 or 65 percent were officers. 54 soldiers on the Wall attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia. Thus, the wars beginning and end meet. But there is a beginning. 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. Although valuable, this study was almost certainly misinterpreted by its authors when they said that their data showed that most privileged and influential segments of American society were not insulated from the perils of Vietnam conflict. This video can help you find the name of someone you'd like to honor. The Wall is about names. EIN: 52-1149668, Copyright 2023 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display. Scholars debate about when the war really began and in many ways it has never ended. The vast majority of Americans who were eligible by age but did not serve in the armed forces were exempted by reason of physical, mental, psychiatric, or moral failure; or they were given status deferments because they were college students, fathers, clergy, teachers, engineers or conscientious objectors. 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. He was a Navy enlisted man during World War II and has a degree in Political Science from Duke University. They enjoyed roaring beer busts. The combination of the selective service policies with the skills and aptitude testing of both volunteers and draftees (in which blacks scored noticeably lower) conspired to assign blacks in greater numbers to the combat units of the Army and Marine Corps. Much more detailed Others, later in the war, were simply ineligible because of high lottery number. However, in 1980, President James E. Carter resumed Selective Service registration in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. They were at their peak physically. The officer corps casualties alone would satisfy that judgment, but that is not the same as being representative. The USO relies on your support to help service members and their families. Blacks were 85 percent Protestant. 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 DOD database provides no civilian or military educational levels for the Vietnam casualties specifically, but it does give us general levels for all enlisted men across all the services during the Vietnam era. How many Smiths can there possibly be who died in Vietnam? Therefore, a complete listing of the records that were lost is not available. Making these arrangements and printing the pages takes considerable This came at a time when blacks made up 11 percent of the male population nationwide. In some instances, names needed to be shuffled in order to fit on a line. And they are so respectful when they do the engraving. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. By providing your mobile phone number, you opt in to receive calls and texts from USO. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. has the names listed in chronological order by date of loss. 1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam. A diamond symbol signifies that the service members death was confirmed. 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. is complete, or you've done a "save as", you can use any word processor 39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger. 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. . The affected record collections are described below. As one walks the Wall slowly, examining the ineffably American names, one is struck by the same recurring surnames. 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 reader loses composure. While VVMF finances the name additions to the Wall, it is the Department of Defense that makes these difficult and often technical decisions. Buis died, as did Army Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand, whose name is second on the wall. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. 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. 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. Vandegeer was on a mission to rescue the crew of the SS Mayaguez, a merchant ship captured three days earlier off the coast of Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge. The names are listed in chronological order, according to the date of casualty. No other moniker for Sammy Davis Jr. was more accurate. 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. 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. There were no indexes created prior to the fire. The Navy fatalities were 2,556 or 2 percent. Who were they? On the west wall, the symbol precedes the name; on the east wall, the symbol follows the name. 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. Learn more about featured topics of the Vietnam War and Vietnam Era. Fallen comrades could be together on the Wall, as theyd been in death. Photo credit DOD photo by Army Sgt. What happens to items left at the memorial? Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund | 3033 Wilson Blvd, Suite 300 | Arlington VA 22201 | 202.393.0090 A(1780 names - 239023 bytes) B(5502 names - 737972 bytes) C(4363 names - 586584 bytes) D(2790 names - 374290 bytes) E(1082 names - 144866 bytes) F(1979 names - 265759 bytes) G(3036 names - 407075 bytes) H(4463 names - 598834 bytes) I(218 names - 29278 bytes) J(1845 names - 247563 bytes) K(2039 names - 273818 bytes) L(2594 names - 347007 bytes) Coast Guard Historians OfficeCommandant (CG-09224)U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters 2100 Second Street SW Washington, D.C. 20593. Inscription at the beginning of The Wall. Another browser may inform you that it does not know how to display the file 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. As they came through the door, Viet Cong guerrillas opened fire with machine guns. It may come as a surprise to some that 63.3 percent of all Vietnam enlisted casualties were not draftees but volunteers. Of the 7,262 blacks who died, 6,955, or 96 percent, were Army and Marine enlisted men. The burden of combat fell on the very available non-college-bound young. Nevertheless, 336,111 men were phased into the service under this plan (mostly the Army) and 2,072 were killed. 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. 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). 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. do this, be sure to have an alternate reader assigned to take over in case Coast Guard casualties are included in the Navy totals. 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 training for American officers is thought by most foreign military authorities to be the best in the world. If a name was particularly long, it would be swapped with a shorter name. In a massive sampling of the database, it was established that between 5 and 6 percent of Vietnam dead had identifiable Hispanic surnames. 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. The Vietnam Wall at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park features the names of local fallen soldiers. 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. And they often show a heartbreakingly wry sense of humor with the same sensibilities as their college-bound peers. He did it allsing, dance, create music and crack wise. 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. Officer casualties in Vietnam, including warrant officers, numbered 7,874, or 13.5 percent of all casualties. 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. 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. and have two columns per page, rather than only one column. The VC had commandeered Air America Hueys, and they were flying them around, which simply made for a very interesting chess game. Senate. National Mall and Memorial Parks , Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Download the official NPS app before your next visit. We were one giant Hollywood B-17 bomber crew, one perfect socioeconomic platoon storming Omaha Beach or Okinawa. 31 sets of brothers are on the Wall. However, there have been no such cases. Where previously a high school diploma had been an acceptable goal, now it was college and all the benefits it would bring. 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. . Air Force Historical Research Agency 600 Chenault Circle Maxwell AFB, AL 36112-6424Telephone: (334) 953-2395, ArmyU.S. the requirements were expanded (by. Officers of all services, by tradition largely Protestant, remained so during the Vietnam war, sustaining casualties in comparison with Catholics by a 5 to 2 ratio. Download our app to find events, locations and programs near you. But after World War II a kind of educational apartheid had settled over the United States. Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010: see the "National Cemeteries and Beneficiaries" section below. On July 12, 1973, a disastrous fire at the NPRC destroyed approximately 16-18 million Official Military Personnel Files. 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. They did not, in most cases, carry the burdens of wife or children. These were Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban and other Latino-Americans with ancestries based in Central and South America. W denotes the west wall, and E denotes the east wall. This is the genius of Mayas design, said Scruggs. It gives the names in alphabetical order and . (The 58,000 Names) Our fallen Vietnam War heroes are herethe 58,000 heroes who died in Vietnam. The numbers on the wall ascend from the center out toward the left and right extremes. The appearance of DoD visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement. Quite a different profile emerges among the Navy and Air force officer corps. 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. Many of them, as experienced pilots, were older (two thirds were thirty or older) and many were high ranking. 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. These casualties came largely from the Northeast and North Central regions of the United States, many from the traditionally patriotic, Catholic working class neighborhoods. Please take a moment to let our troops know how much we appreciate their service and sacrifice. 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. Their sacrifices were honored July 8, 2009, in Washington during a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of their deaths. The Marines of Morenciled some of thebest high school football and basketball teams that the little Arizona copper town of Morenci (pop. The Wall of Faces allows family and friends to share memories, post pictures and connect with each other. 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. About 58 thousand of the 7 million American service men and women who served in Vietnam died. Of all enlisted men who died in Vietnam, blacks made up 14.1 percent of the total. Although it is a truism that the young die in war, one is still unprepared for the fact that 40 percent of Marine enlisted casualties in Vietnam were teenagers; that more than 16 percent of Army enlisted casualties were also teenagers; and that nearly a quarter of all enlisted casualties in Vietnam were between the ages of 17- and 19-years old. Concerning, How do I find a name on the Vietnam War Memorial wall? In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. The numbers on the wall ascend from the center out toward the left and right extremes. The ceremony is held on Mothers Day and the additions might be as simple as rectifying a clerical error or as heartbreaking as a veteran dying, all these years later, from a wound suffered during the war. Black leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., protested, and President Johnson ordered black participation in combat units cut back. 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). 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. It called for the registration of all 18 to 26-year old males, with induction to take place at 18 1/2 if so ordered by the local draft board. 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. 3rd Battalion. "Home of record" does not necessarily refer to the place of birth, residence of next of kin, place of longest residence, nor other common uses of the term "hometown." 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. since it was dedicated because additional casualty records were found and Eight women were killed in Vietnam, five Army lieutenants, one Army captain, one Army lieutenant colonel and one Air Force captain. Army and Marine officer casualties were also quite young. Fully 50 percent were in the 17- to 24-year age group, and astonishingly, there were 764 Army officer casualties who were 21 or younger. Vietnam War, Awards and Decorations of Honor, 1965-1972. There is some truth to this, but it is instructive to look at what the DOD database reveals in terms of race, ethnicity, national origin, religious preference and casualties by U.S. geographic areas. 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 The first two names listed on Panel 1, East Wall, at the apex are from July 8, 1959. Only 3 returned home. November 11, 1982. This approach would allow veterans, friends and family members to find a loved one by his or her date of casualty. peruse. Doubek was tasked with identifying all of the names to be included on the Wall. Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their sons. 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.