Most of you know I try my best to be
non-political in all my posts and comments. I seldom if ever share my political
opinion – I stick to the policies and processes of local government – not the
politics.
Today, I received this wonderful
reminder from a good friend which I would like to share. It contains a history that is slowly being
forgotten and sadly most of us don’t even know.
I am not advocating anything – I am just sharing some unbelievable interesting
statistics regarding the Vietnam Memorial Wall – something many of us especially
in my generation find so special and hold so near and dear.
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.
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 names
on the Wall were 22 years old 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.
31 sets of
parents lost two of their sons.
54 soldiers
attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia {wonder why so many from
one school}
8 Women are
on the Wall all nurses tending to 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.
I know that many who read this they will only see the
numbers; however for those of us who survived the war, and to the families of
those who did not, we still see the faces, we still feel the pain.
There are very few if any wars that are
noble; however those who gave it all were noble.
Maybe you can pass this on, to those like me, who served
and still remember.
