On the west wall, the symbol precedes the name; on the east wall, the symbol follows the name. Getting to Washington, D.C. A more precise equation would be that the college bound stayed home while the non-college bound served and died. This can be in the form of a book, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Directory of Names, or one of the various databases. Army Major Dale Buis name is etched into the granite half an inch tall, no bigger or smaller than any of the others. 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. In some instances, names needed to be shuffled in order to fit on a line. Patricia Krause. Despite their inexperience, they were thought to accept discipline readily. They enjoyed roaring beer busts. Interested in a tour as part of your visit? The most casualty deaths for a single day was on January 31, 1968 245 deaths. 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. As they came through the door, Viet Cong guerrillas opened fire with machine guns. No duplicate copies of the records that were destroyed in the fire were maintained, nor was a microfilm copy ever produced. A new Department of Defense (DOD) database computer tape released through the National Archives allows researchers to take a much closer look at our 58,152 Vietnam casualties. Though blessed with talent, his life wasnt without struggles. The Selective Service System remains in place today. More names are added to the wall every year. Beginning Research in United States Military Records, National Vietnam War Veterans Day - Wikepedia, National Park Service Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Of the 7,262 blacks who died, 6,955, or 96 percent, were Army and Marine enlisted men. The Vietnam War was no different. An Air Force member, with his back to the camera, holds the POW/MIA flag during a full honors funeral for Air Force Second Lieutenant Richard Vandegeer at Arlington National Cemetery on October 27, 2000. 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. Buis was in Vietnam by his own volition. They seem honored to be putting the names on the Wall.. 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. Millions more come to experience this Memorial each year. 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. At the time, approximately 1,300 names were designated as servicemen who were either missing or prisoners of war. Frequently relatives or buddies of casualties This uneven impact was caused by a number of factors: (1) While the South was home to some 53 percent of all blacks in the 1970 census, almost 60 percent of black casualties came from the South; (2) Although we cannot be as precise, we do know that a considerable majority of Hispanic-American casualties came from the West, (California, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado) and the South (Texas); (3) Better employment opportunities in the Northeast reduced the number of volunteers; (4) Greater college matriculation in the Northeast increased the number of status deferments for the regions 17- to 24- year olds; (5) More anti-war sentiment in the media and on college campuses in the Northeast. In 2004, the total is 58,241 names. The directories are organized alphabetically by last name. 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. 1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam. The Air Force lost the highest percentage of officers. At some The Moving Wall sites, the sponsor makes arrangements 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. As a result, the software improperly truncated or abbreviated names. There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Vietnam Wall. Once a master list was compiled, the names were checked manually for errors. And in the patriotic camaraderie typical of Morencis mining families, the nine graduates of Morenci High enlisted as a group in the Marine Corps. This is close to, but not exactly in the same order 5th Marines were killed in . while they download, thank you. All other individual draftee files from that period were destroyed by the Selective Service System in 1978, in accordance with approved records retention schedules. Almost 50 percent were majors, lieutenant-colonels, colonels and three were generals. The Air Force lost 2,580 or l percent. 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. The first two names listed on Panel 1, East Wall, at the apex are from July 8, 1959. The widely held notion that the poor served and died in Vietnam while the rich stayed home is way off the mark. If you Written requests should be mailed to: National Personnel Records Center, 9700 Page Ave., St. Louis, MO 63132-5100. Physical examination and test results, medical letters, laboratory work and other medical documentation that may have been included in these files no longer exist. Photo credit DOD photo. The numbers on the wall ascend from the center out toward the left and right extremes. As of 2017, there are 58,318 names inscribed on The Wall. Honoring the men and women who served in the controversial Vietnam War, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial chronologically lists the names of 58,318 Americans who gave their lives in service to their country. Click to learn about the In Memory program . 26 Similar Questions Kurt Buis was 8 years old the day his father died. Look at the bottom of each panel on the wall for its number. THE NAMES ON THE WALL: AN HISTORICAL JUDGMENT. Today, more than 58,000 names are engraved in the wall, and more were added in May. An estimated 11,000 women served in Vietnam. But in 1966, President Johnson and Secretary of Defense McNamara decided to institute Project 100,000 that would allow category IV men to enter the military. These were Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban and other Latino-Americans with ancestries based in Central and South America. 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. Indeed, officer casualties of all branches were overwhelmingly white. Items are gathered by park staff. Kurt became the man of the house, even as a boy. And there are the Vietnam veterans, who come to recognize the sacrifice of their fellow warriors, wondering why their own names are not there, too. Vietnam War: in Country, Notice: Scanning of Vietnam-era Deck Logs, Vietnam War, 1961-1975. The beginnings and endings are often hazy and the facts of the story lie at the mercy of the teller. The DOD database listed precise religious preferences for the 58,152 Vietnam casualties. This can help veterans or relatives find other persons who died with During one review, Doubek found a glitch with the computer software: it did not recognize the spaces that appeared within a last name, such as van der Meide. Nor could it properly discern a compounded first name, such as Billy Bob, versus a traditional first and middle name. It is more notable, perhaps, only because his was the first name engraved into The Wall. Though the memorial continues to grow and evolve, the last name on the wall still belongs to Air Force Second Lieutenant Richard Vandegeer, a pilot who died after his helicopter crashed on May 15, 1975, during the wars final combat action. Photo credit DOD photo by Army Sgt. In the event a service members remains are returned or accounted for, then a diamond symbol is engraved over the plus sign. There are over 58,000 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. Many of them, as experienced pilots, were older (two thirds were thirty or older) and many were high ranking. 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. This was long before the advent of integrated computer databases. Learn more about featured topics of the Vietnam War and Vietnam Era. If a name was particularly long, it would be swapped with a shorter name. There are students on field trips, some solemn and curious, but some just happy to get out of class. They played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. EIN: 52-1149668, Copyright 2023 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display. 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. And there is an end. Records of U.S. Military Casualties, Missing in Action, and Prisoners of War from the Era of the Vietnam War are available through the National Archives. There are the still-grieving family members who come to pay respects as they would at a cemetery, to leave mementos and make chalk renderings of a loved ones name. 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. 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 The figures show that on average 65 percent of white enlisted men and 60 percent of black enlisted men were high school graduates. Please say a prayer for our fallen heroes, their family members, and our hero Vietnam War Veterans during your visit. Their sons, if not college material, made up a significant part of the volunteers and draftees. We were one giant Hollywood B-17 bomber crew, one perfect socioeconomic platoon storming Omaha Beach or Okinawa. Her name? It stands near Panel 1W, which holds the name of the last to die in combat. Eight women were killed in Vietnam, five Army lieutenants, one Army captain, one Army lieutenant colonel and one Air Force captain. Brothers Marlin and Norman Eversgerd were both killed in Vietnam. For men who registered for the draft prior to 1976, the only Selective Service System information available is that of the individual Draft Registration Card (SSS Form 1) and Classification History (SSS Form 102) records. as the names on the Wall. No single persons service or sacrifice would be any greater than anyone elses. 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. These young men were trained quickly and shipped to Vietnam quickly. There are 58,267 names now listed on Vietnam Wall, including those added in 2010. "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." Every day at 3:00 p.m. EST, VVMF will play a daily reading of all the individuals who died upon that day in alphabetical order. This is the genius of Mayas design, said Scruggs. A.. B.. C.. D.. E.. F.. G.. H.. Military Reunions, Screensavers, Rubbings, Personal Guestbook for all Names. The National Park Service offers these steps for locating a name: National Park Service rangers and volunteers are available to assist in locating names at the Memorial. For information regarding official military unit histories, contact: Air ForceU.S. Fallen comrades could be together on the Wall, as theyd been in death. Dear Mr. Huddleston, Thank you for posting your request on History Hub! The names of Army Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand and Major Dale Buis are inscribed on Panel 1E of the Vietnam War Memorial Wall. An aunt came and loaded the three boys into the car. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. It specified the geographic areas of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and surrounding coastal areas as combat zones. peruse. For families who have worked to have their loved ones name added, the journey can be long and exhausting. 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. Several hundred such designation changes have been made since the Wall was built in 1982. and have two columns per page, rather than only one column. More than 200 names have been added to the Wall 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. The shining surface is intended to reflect the sun, the ground and those who stand before it. In civilian life, poor aptitude testing can have a tremendous negative impact, whether for college placement or for simple job advancement. The training for American officers is thought by most foreign military authorities to be the best in the world. 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. Through the AFQT process, the men scoring in the higher categories were more likely to be channeled into further specialized training and eventually assigned to technical and administrative units. Each entry includes a panel number and letter; "W" is for "west" or the left half of the memorial, "E" is for east, or the right half of the memorial. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. The ship had been taken to the island of Koh Tang. The Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) was given to all entering enlisted men. The names are listed chronologically by date of death, the first to last. readers. "The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund's registry enables veterans across the world to be able to locate fellow Vietnam Veterans and of course, connect their stories with those who made the ultimate sacrifice. How many women soldiers died in the Vietnam War? The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized. As the Vietnam War dragged on, Kurt tried twice to enlist. 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. A diamond symbol signifies that the service members death was confirmed. 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). The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. It gives the names in alphabetical order and .
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