Please feel free to take part in our discussion– this forum serves as a guestbook for everyone, not just members. Offensive, spam, and inflammatory posts may be deleted.
If your comment does not show up right away, do not worry, it was probably temporarily marked as spam for some reason. However, your comment will be manually approved and later posted once an administrator has reviewed it.
Lawrence,
The VA hospitals usually have an advocate on site who can answer questions or a state vet representative. Could also try the American Legion. That would be my starting point. Good luck.
Jan 9, 1970 ambush: To my knowledge, no one was hit in the initial ambush. We were in a rice paddy, so we all hid behind the dikes. They kept shooting at us, putting holes in our packs and clothing. Bob Duckworth took the only hit and it was a graze across the back (may have been a ricochet off his pack frame). When we got out of the rice paddy, Bob was going to take a drink from his canteen and it was empty except for a bullet rattling around inside. Duane Bailey also took a hit to his canteen. I walked that area this spring. I took refuge in a gravesite – still there. Ty Harper and I had a meeting in a bomb crater – still there. I walked the area where Jake and Arky were killed – village there now. The bomb craters we created those 5 days are still there (they are filling them in with garbage).
I figure the rule of thumb is 9 support to 1 infantry. That would say 10% was infantry, but look at our turnover. Not many guys lasted a full tour. I would say a lot more than 10% were infantry in VN.
Looking forward to seeing everyone in South Dakota.
I am at my summer quarters in Creede, CO. It has been raining every day for the last 45 days. I wished it was doing this on my farm in southeast Colorado as it hasn’t rained there for going on two months.
Rex Allen got here Friday! We have been enjoying the cool weather as well as each other’s company. We went on a four wheeler ride yesterday and saw some beautiful country.
I haven’t gotten a report from Doc Whitebird on this year’s reunion yet. I have heard from several that are going to attend.
howdy…got a question and don’t know who to address it to:::there is a young man who was in national guard/while on free time he was in an accident which made him paralized from waiste down//went thru lots of recuping time–va–now the va has turned him down for any p/c—all my contact info is in the rooster..kindly enlighten me so as i can help him…
Short Round, subtracting R&R, being wounded twice, and a series of other maladies and down time; I spent 278 days in the bush before getting sent up to battalion. We lost a lot of guys during our tour. Too many!!
Pardon me while I puke but I saw a photo and article in today’s paper of a female Army Colonel having a star pinned on her shoulder by her wife as she made BG!
Mark & LT,
I was there in the Spring of 69 & came in country Nov, 68 so that is when I heard the number. I remember for some reason thinking my odds of being killed was 5% for the year I was there. Someone told me if you were wounded twice they would take you out of combat. I am sure I was in the bush (counting fire base time as out for R&R leave 1 week and 1 week in Da Nang hospital for boil on butt. By the end I was a walking Zombie. Don’t even remember the last 75 days except leaving the field on my last day on a supply copper.
Some numberst that I remember. Which doesn’t mean I’m remembering them right.
At arrival at Camranh bay (July 69 for me), before RVN training, an NCO told the whole bunch of us that, statistically, out ot 200 guys standing there, 3 would be killed. I don’t remember if theer were numbers for wounded, etc.
Some time later, when it was a group of infantry, artillery and I think combat engineers, in RVN training, a group of about 65 of us were told that about three of us would be killed.
then, I remember something somewhere that said infantry in Vietnam could expect statistically, some number (I don’t remember-I can’t believe it was three because we didn’t have that kind of numbers, not even close, thank god) out of every 10 killed. Something like 2 seriously wounded and 10 wounded (obviously including multiple hits on some guys). That of course is 100%-statistically.
Now, I don’t know if any of those were right or what. The infantry one probably reflects those first few years, when guys in the 9th divisiion in the Delta used to get contact every friggin day. Way worse than we had it. And Tet of course, which I missed and most of us here did.
So, if those numbers are close to right, it seems the infantry took pretty much all of the hits, some multiple times of course. I have one purple heart but sometimes say I have one and a half, because of what happened to me without getting hit the day of the two medics. The official one was from Jan. 11, the day we lost Arky & Jake.
the guys in Iraq & Afghanistan have it pretty bad even if they are not infantry. From what I read in the local papers, riding in a car (humvee) or walking down the street is more dangerous than door-to-door stuff. we had our share of booby traps but they keep getting better/worse as time goes by.
About two years ago, I was talking to Tommy Denton aka “Tex” who had been a 90mm guy but mostly mortars with Echo 2/1. We were talking about first getting to hawk Hill from Baldy. I remember riding shotgun on a convoy and when we got there there was a pile of dead sappers at the main gate. And I mean a pile-15 or 20 stacked up. Tom told me 27 of our guys got killed in that sapper attack.
I also remember something about Duckworth (who I heard later died in a car acccident) had either been hit 5-6 times (all minor) or had multiple times when a round or shrapnel took hour his canteen, punctured his shirt or something like that without ever touching him. Does anyone know if that is familiar or did my 64 year old brain invent that.
I specifically remember Duckworth because coincidentally, we were both at Fort Hood before being sent to nam and he was the company armorer or something like that.
i`m sure i`m not the only 1 that had over 143 days in the bush. i`m betting 200 here, , at least. time at hawk hill count as bush time ? my sham time for 2 events totalled 5 days–fever of unknown origin and 2 days for minor shrapnel
LT, July 25 – 28th already on my calender. Good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, I’ll be there. Already talked to Ben about it, he and I both have agreed we need eachother to approach that Wall for the first time. I also have read the 1 in 7 account number over the years, but the number I found most interesting was the average grunt spent 47 days in combat in WWII, while the average in VN was143. Personally I believe statistics can be skewed however it is to whoever figures it out. One day was one to many .
In the spring of 1969, there were 547,000 troops in country. Approx. 50,000 were grunts
Bill,
That answer is like a shot group of mine—all over the target. I googled it and came up with answers as low as 5-10% to one that emphatically said 14%. I used to use 7 to 1 for support soldiers to combat soldiers but one website said more like 10 to 1 in Vietnam. In one case it said when we had only 540,000 in Vietnam which I suppose was early on that only 60, 000 of those were ground pounders.
DANG–I AM LOSING IT–but only a bit. correct–16 mar 70. i entered bootcamp on 20 mar 69
OK here my question! I watched a Ken Burns series on WW II. It said that 17% of those who served were in the “grunts”. Does anyone know the percentage in Vietnam? I have heard 10%.
Bill: I can’t say how many were grunts, but I CAN tell you that among the grunts, the casualty ratio was about 1 in 2. That’s right….1 in 2. That’s greater than the Civil War when it was 1 in 3.
Guys!
The dates for the 196LIB reunion in DC next year are published. I will be July 25-28, 2013. I am hoping we can get a large group of C/2/1ers together for that and we can all go to the Wall together.
Bill,
Picky Picky Picky! Maybe I was making a spelling to emphasize the lunacy of that day! Yes, it was March 16 not March 20 but SR is getting up in years and maybe the memory is fading! By the way they didn’t teach us spelling at the Benning School for Boys!
LT……I can’t believe that an officer and a gentleman like you cannot spell “debacle”. SR, The booby traps were on 16 March 1970…….Rucksack idea #10 G.I.
Short Round,
Let the enemy collect it. I was blessed in my 54 weeks in the field not to get one.
SR,
You kind of left out SFC Walden and Sgt Peagler who were KIA from the March 20 dibocal!
SR,
You kind of left out SFC Walden and Sgt Peagler who were KIA from then March 20 dibocal!
bill–amen to that. if i`m not mistaken, on 20 march 70 we had around 20 wounded plus 1 viet lost a leg and 1 died. we also had 2 wounded medics and 2 or 3 from mortars wounded. if we had 80 in the field that day at least 1 of 4 was wounded. and that was just 1 day of a 365 day tour, unless of course those that weren`t able to return.
uhhhhh i take it you were less than impressed with my rucksack idea.
Larry, Bill and Short Round……..Everyone in Charlie Company that did not get a Purple Heart came damn near close to getting one or more. It was just a roll of the dice…..Like a lot of things in life, the Purple Heart has been a mixed blessing for me…..On the one hand, I can’t stand up for 10 minutes without bad leg pain…..On the other hand it got me home early and I get a nice chunk of change each month.
bill–my perspective–better to give the enemy a purple heart than have him give you one.
My respect goes out to the Purple Heart Club. One medal I was blessed not to earn. May you all be well.
i was reminded that AUG. 7 th is PURPLE HEART DAY those that recieved one hope you had recogination…. for me it was a day at the V.A.–after all was done i was told a doc would be in touch… normally i get told the results…..////hope all continue to be blessed when in need…
bill–i can help with that 140. you can carry me around on your back,at the reunion, like a rucksack, then at the end of the day–i get off your back and you feel 140 lbs less. anything to help another grunt. you can thank me later.
best recovery wishes for your wife.
Bill,
Tai is doing just great! She works hard in the garden and around the house. She does more than most people in a day which is miraculous considering she broke her back about a year and a half ago. Thanks for asking.
Thanks LT…How is Tai doing?
Bill,
Tai and I send our best wishes to your wife for a speedy and uneventful recovery!
ill,
Tai and I send our best wishes to your wife for a speedy and uneventful recovery!