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Vietnam Memorial Wall----statistics

beneteaubeneteau Member Posts: 8,552 ✭✭✭
edited January 2012 in General Discussion
Got this in an email from the wife. May have already been posted.


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.


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 the Wall 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. TET!


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.
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Comments

  • bpostbpost Member Posts: 32,669 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Sobering and oh so very sad.
  • Don McManusDon McManus Member Posts: 23,684 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    It has always surprised me that there are only 31 sets of brothers and only 3 fathers and sons listed on the wall

    There were 23 sets of brothers and 1 father and son killed on the USS Arizona.

    That said, the Vietnam Memorial Wall and the Korean War Memorial are two very powerful monuments to the individuals we send to war.
    Freedom and a submissive populace cannot co-exist.

    Brad Steele
  • 17tobyracing17tobyracing Member Posts: 3,429 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    God bless them all..
  • susiesusie Member Posts: 7,646 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The Uncle I lost in Vietnam:

    http://www.virtualwall.org/dw/WilsonJL01a.htm

    He had just married my mom's baby sister. The night he was killed, my aunt was living with my grandparents. She heard him call her name and got up to see if by some strange reason he had returned home early. She woke my grandparents to ask if they had heard him call out as well.

    She was notified the following day that he was killed in action.
  • HandLoadHandLoad Member Posts: 15,998
    edited November -1
    Every Time I go to D.C., I stop by the Wall and visit with some of my Friends from High School.

    Tears me up every time.
  • jwb267jwb267 Member Posts: 19,664 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    has anyone really figured out why we fought that war peace action?
    a lot of lives lost for nothing[:(]
  • 17tobyracing17tobyracing Member Posts: 3,429 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    My dad did 2 tours(1968 - '69), after he had served for a year with USMC HMX-1. He was stationed at Marble Mountain and was a door-gunner on a CH-46. He was awarded a Purple Heart. He made it back home, but he did lose a number of good friends. I visited the wall with him during the debut year. It was one of only two occasions where I have seen my father cry. The other occasion was his older brother's funeral.

    I am a proud son of a Vietnam Vet!
  • n/an/a Member Posts: 168,427
    edited November -1
    17tobyracing:

    Tell your dad from me, Welcome home brother.. Vietnam 1968 and 1972
  • 17tobyracing17tobyracing Member Posts: 3,429 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Classic095
    17tobyracing:

    Tell your dad from me, Welcome home brother.. Vietnam 1968 and 1972


    Will do and thank you for your service!
  • He DogHe Dog Member Posts: 51,593 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I have friends and schoolmates on the wall. I have been more than once, and every time it destroyed me.
  • spasmcreekspasmcreek Member Posts: 37,717 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    the moving wall came to wichita years ago but i was unable to go...respectfully, i cannot think what to say to all those lives if i get there when americans are kissing up to enemies who killed our soldiers for good old free entrerprise ..."good news guys, quarterly profits are up 3%" ...???????????....bothers me
  • whiteclouderwhiteclouder Member Posts: 10,574 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I visited it once. I could not take another visit. A crushing experience.

    Clouder..
  • SpokesSpokes Member Posts: 341 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I am a Vietnam vet and I thank you for posting that information.
  • WarbirdsWarbirds Member Posts: 16,929 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I visit the national mall 6-8 times a year.


    The Vietnam memorial wall is really incredible. There maybe a group or just one Vietnam veteran there, but there is always someone there reflecting on that chapter of their life.
  • texaswildmantexaswildman Member Posts: 2,215 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Michael Vernon Solomon - 10-21-1970. 06W-015

    I will never forget that day....
  • Alan RushingAlan Rushing Member Posts: 8,805 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    He took me a long while to build-up to viewing it ... the traveling Wall.

    Every time that I have viewed it I have found more guys that I had worked with and known. I'd hate to think how many others that I knew but did not find.

    For me it is near impossible to experience, it definitely takes something or changes things about, the experience is mighty rough, but of course absolutely nothing if compared to what they sacraficed! [:(]
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