life expectancy of an infantry soldier in vietnam life expectancy of an infantry soldier in vietnam

The Department of Defense Vietnam War Service Index officially provided by The War Library originally reported with errors that 2,709,918 U.S. military personnel as having served in-country. https://www.historynet.com/no-1-gun-an-m60-machine-gunner-in-vietnam-tells-his-story/, 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. hb```8fB cBLd2>Tb jz1@E; aK6Tmc.Nn"&gn7hj'wm,h d6p4u0`&88:,TMV& y@ b=e>a&^ >{2b`ZHE3psn QZ MEDEVAC helicopters flew nearly 500,000 missions. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. His best friend is 86 and still alive. I am 16 years old an 150 pounds qith some good muscle. Over 900,000 patients were airlifted (nearly half were American). Foot soldiers went by the grace of God, but had a better chance than the infantry platoon commander in combat. If it had been up to me, I would have awarded my gun the CIB too. All that other stuff about seconds and minutes were story tellers, embellishing things to impress some listeners back home. I had a 20% death rate in my Hospital Corpsman Class. I quit trying to make sense of all the numbers that have been generated about Vietnam. The oldest man killed was 62 years old. One of them gazed in our direction, lowered his AK 47 assault rifle and fired six shots. ), special forces, combat support, engineering, medics, and vehicle assault weapons. Half of the company hopped off the Huey on one side of the river, and the rest exited on the other side. Nixon Presidential Papers. Videos, Film, Music, and Movies about VN War, Author interview War & Life: Discussions with a Veteran, A Chat Between Three Veterans [live video with author], Lest We Forget Meet the Authors & Book Signing April 4th: Cherries and Donut Dolly, Interview with author John Podlaski in Examiner Magazine, American Heroes Radio interviews author of Cherries A Vietnam War Novel, Cherries Author Interviewed on British Website, U.K. Blogspot posts interviews author, John Podlaski, More Book Reviews and author interviews about Cherries, Les Scates, U.S. Army (Ret.) Mech. Found NVA bunker complex. (Getty Images) Most war stories are about soldiers and battles. Soon I could take the gun apart and put it back together in the dark. means: 1 gets killed the 1st second, another one after 9 seconds avg. Without that commitment, Communism would have swept all the way to the Malacca Straits that is south of Singapore and of great strategic importance to the free world. He pulled the company into a perimeter and dispatched 4th Platoon to recon the trail to the west, while 1st Platoon performed a similar mission to the east-southeast. Welcome home brothers and sisters. Proudly holding my M60 over my head, I screamed at the top of my lungs, No. It was one of my most memorable tours in the Navy I later went to a carrier and was bored silly because I had about 1% of the responsibilities I had as an O-2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_losses_of As I remember it the life expectancy was based on after the ambush was sprung or the fire fight started. Contents 1 Unclear objectives 2 North Vietnamese strategy The fact that PDoggbiker cant find any decent calculation/explanation, tells us a lot. As of April 14, 2017, there are 1,611 Americans still unaccounted for from the Vietnam War across Vietnam (1,258), Laos(297), Cambodia(49), and China(7). Fact: Mortality studies show that 9,000 is a better estimate. Our chase after the enemy unwittingly led us into a large ambush. I was an FO back in the day. Its not all written down. Great story!!! Vietnam War the helicopters that came in to transport soldiers were the hardest hit with mass casualties . The life expectancy of a radio operator in the Vietnam War ranged between five to six seconds all the way up to a slightly-more-optimistic thirty seconds, depending on your source. 0 I never saw any correlation as to what MOS a soldier was and their survival rate. Required fields are marked *. My assistant gunner and my ammo bearer also carried 300 rounds each. The Tet Offensive succeeded on only one front and that was the News front and the political arena. I sure feel for all you guys that went outside the wire. No creo que Susana _____ (seguir) sobre los consejos de su mdico. Thank You General Vessey for the almost 53 years I have lived since that day. No. Completa las oraciones con la forma correcta del presente de subjuntivo de los verbos entre parntesis.? Welcome home. It resulted in the death of some 45,000 NVA troops and the complete, if not total destruction of the Viet Cong elements in South Vietnam. Flipping the safety off, I scanned the jungle in front of me. Isolated atrocities committed by American Soldiers produced torrents of outrage from anti-war critics and the news media while Communist atrocities were so common that they received hardly any media mention at all. The first thing my platoon sgt. In fact, after the 5-year post-service period, the rate of suicides is less in the Vietnam veterans group. Sociologists Charles C. Moskos and John Sibley Butler, in their recently published book All That We Can Be, said they analyzed the claim that blacks were used like cannon fodder during Vietnam and can report definitely that this charge is untrue. Our battalion operated at a base camp near Tuy Hoa in Phu Yen province along the South China Sea from October 1966 to January 1967. Units would send a thorough report of their KIA and WIA, battle action coordinates, estimated enemy troop strength, enemy unit KIA/captured and any known direction heading. He was not the type to hump a radio. I remember hearing somewhere about an RTO who wasnt getting the info out correctly and the Lieutenant (Kennedy) grabbed the mic and said My RTO Is Foxtrot Uniform. 75,000 Vietnam veterans are severely disabled. Dap, Hope this helps. S/F, There were no door gunners on dustoffs. Though I flew only about 1/2 dozen missions as a Huey door gunner, I was initially told to sit on my flak jacket I always did so (personal protection first). I was a medic on one for two yrs and the only weapon I was issue was a six-shot .38. 74% say they would serve again, even knowing the outcome. Really? Your article was quite interesting. Vietnam Veterans were the best educated forces our nation had ever sent into combat. One was holding a carbine. I have a fried Who is killed in Vietnam six months before I got there cause of death was other how would I find out since his parents are long gone, Do a search for his name n Coffeltdatabase.org, Sir, would you mind me translating this into Spanish and getting it posted in our blog? We all die, so its not even worth worrying about when in my opinion, id rather do something that i knew was worth it and risk dieing instead of living in fear of death. You can find the polarity of a compound by finding electronegativities (an atoms desire for an electron) of the atoms; Carbon has an electronegativity of 2.5, compared to Fluorines A) Enter the the Ksp expression for the solid AB2 in terms of the molar solubility x. I DISAGREETHE ENEMY WOULD SHOOT THE GUY NEXT TO THE RTO-KNOWING HE WAS THE COMMANDER. My 31-months in-country was in three Direct Support US Army aviation units, 15TC BN, First Cav, 335TH, Americal and 17TH Cav 101ST ABD65-71In the last battle I was directly involved, LAM SON 719, into Laos, cost army aviation units over 600-helicopters shot down or battle damagedthe NVA were waiting for our SECRET mission in early 71I was glad to go home at battles end, in March 71 , almost unscathed, I was TDY for my absurd third tourTo the point, many ARVN Rangers, airborne and their other best died in Lam Son 719US Army Infantry were forbidden entry to Laos in 71.. the ARVN were massacredand many US Army pilots and crew mambers were KIA & WIAeven MIA. I knew some of this, but certainly not all. Ambushed on October 4th,1967. Anyway I was wondering about the RTOs in a grunt platoon, was that their MOS or were they 11B that carried a PRC ? As a point of reference, Patterson explained that combat troops in World War II, on average, spent 36 days in a combat environment; the average infantryman in Vietnam spent 245 days in constant. The man with the carbine immediately dropped it, and the two VC surrendered. I carried the PRC-25 for most of a year. Terrified, I dropped down as fast as I could, pulling the gun and two ammo belts of 100 rounds apiece on top of me as I fell back into the dry streambed. I was to have that experience two more times before it was over. Comments were more interesting than the article it self. To my right, Piambino had poked his head out of the trench to fire his M16 rifle. Thank You Roger!!! Carrying a dead man some 300 yards through thick jungle in 100-degree heat was extraordinarily difficult. Fact: The domino theory was accurate. In Vietnam, 1 in 400 of the wounded died of their . I will always think/say, we had absolutely no reason for being in that place. Lucky you. Not to mention that right now its safer than some cities in the us. Still shaken, I grabbed the gun and crawled to the left inside the streambed. Keep in step with US Wings Join our newsletter to receive all our latest news and offers, Example: Yes, I would like to receive emails from US Wings. Does this mean addressing to a crowd? Of the . I was an O5C-20 in Vietnam. Combatants on both sides faced physical challenges posed by the climate, terrain and wildlife of the country. (Although 58,169 names are in the Nov. 93 database, only 58,148 have both event date and birth date. First thing we did was, Set up a complete circular perimeter. Contents1 [] I was told to help carry one of the bodies. It weighed 24 pounds, was 43.5 inches long and had bipod legs that folded down to stabilize the weapon when firing from a prone position. We took fire all the time and responded. General Vo Nguyen Giap, the designer of the Tet Offensive, is considered by some as ranking with Wellington, Grant, Lee and MacArthur as a great commander. To an, open area. 58,148 were killed and 304,000 wounded out of 2.7 million who served. Shea's gallantry in action at the cost of his life were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon . If the NVA shot at the group retrieving the bodies, I was to fire over the heads of the grunts and engage the enemy. While traveling through the boonies the first few men were usually always shot first. The Indonesians threw the Soviets out in 1966 because of Americas commitment in Vietnam. The Kb of pyridine, C5H5N, is 1.5 x 10-9. I loved it. From Cam Rahn, we kept flying north to, a Landing Zone near QUANG TRI. We walked the mountains and rice patties all thru Tu Thien Province. I for one commend you for your courage and thank you for your service to your country. Out of thousands of men that invaded that town in southern Afghanistan, we have lost 19. My shit got weak and a sniper popped three rounds in my young ass. Thanks for posting! I was told my life expectancy was about 45 secs during a fire fight because of the weapons and demo I carried. 10-4. From the Landing Zone, we were carried not too far. They were a great bunch. Id had a premonition, and asked the LT to let me trade off to become the AG. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Address: 9241 13th Ave SW I got shot on a mission with 45 days left. Overrun and utterly destroyed, the 30-man 4th Platoon had suffered 21 killed and one missing. We wanted a break. The machine guns were numbered within each platoon. Your Dad and I had the same job. Certainly got my attention. Thanks. I was on a radar crew and we were told that, during war time, we would most likely be killed within minutes. However, Shermans were very outmatched by the German tanks on the field of battle. This is hard to believe, losing nearly 711,000 between 95 and 00. In total, the United States military lost in Vietnam almost 10,000 aircraft, helicopters and UAVs (3,744 planes, 5,607 helicopters and 578 UAVs). To my surprise, I qualified as an expert with the M60 machine gun, nicknamed the pig because of the size, weight and sound of the weapon. Sure but so was everyone else who went 12 months without getting killed or wounded. The United States sought to minimize and prevent attacks on civilians while North Vietnam made attacks on civilians a centerpiece of its strategy. The gas-operated, belt-fed gun had a maximum rate of fire of 550-650 rounds per minute. They were Kims cousins not her brothers. Enemy fire greeted as us as soon as we landed near the village. We looked for cover and returned fire the best we could. Every single . 87% of Americans hold Vietnam Veterans in high esteem. He was with the 509th Radio Research Station. DeLong had only fired the weapon once in training, so I let him fire off a few rounds to practice. One out of every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam was a casualty. We all have opinions, this is mine. Tumbling end over end, the canisters exploded in a white-hot fireball. As of the current Census taken during August, 2000, the surviving U.S. Vietnam Veteran population estimate is: 1,002,511. 1 Gun more than I did. The American military did not lose a battle of any consequence. I want to know what the life expectancy of a us infantry army soldier is. is sharing facts, thats truly good, keep up writing. RIP KOOKIE forever young, Thank god you are still alive, I am age 77. This article appeared in the October 2021 issue of Vietnam magazine. More importantly, Grandstaff was very gung-ho. The Bronze Star was awarded to ALL that were awarded the CIB in WWII because the Infantry accounted for over 70% of the casualties in WWLL BUT NOT 70% )F ALL THE INFANTRY !!! They were well-armed, well-trained and knew how to fight. The Vietnamese pilot who dropped the napalm in error is currently living in the United States. The fact is that most machine gunners, RTOs, junior officers and other extremely dangerous jobs survived the war. Company A searched in vain for the platoon in the dark and finally found the shattered unit on the morning of May 19. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. Anxiously extending the bipod legs on the M60, I added a 100-round belt to the one I already had in the gun. When Apache Snow began, I was an RTO, after Airborne, and before the CA on Dong Ap Bia, I became the AG for Roeski. Ha Ha always enjoyed being a volunteer! The Organization of the Viet Cong Units in the South never recovered. The smell of those charred bodies, blackened and smoking from the napalm strike, is something I can never forget. Love you Wortman!!!! At that time, an infantry company consisted of about 150 men. I did worry about the strength of my flax vest. Really no mention of the regular rifleman. We all gotta die sometime, Red. SSgt Barnes, Platoon, its nothing to really concern yourself with, on a long enough time line everyones survival rate is 0%. In total, the 7th Infantry spent four years in Vietnam. It was more or less next man up . Now, the wisdom of this soldier tough but humanly compassionate warrior ethos can be assessed through the 2d Bn recordNO complaints about mistreatment of prisonerswhile achieving the most combat SUCCESSES IN THE BRIGADE. I applaud the courage and difficult and all so dangerous job of Roger Herforth when he served as an RTO for the Hawk Recon Platoon of the 101st airborne division in Vietnam.. The battalion was sending us to a village with a small river running through it. The three of us had trained together at Fort Lewis and were good friends. What was the life expectancy of a point man in Vietnam? Was it left behind on some forgotten battlefield? Both served in A 2/18 1st Infantry Division. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. You seen the enemy you shots him and vice versa. Phi Pow B.Sc (econ) in Economic History & Economics (college minor), London School of Economics and Political Science Author has 212 answers and 234.6K answer views 2 y Originally Answered: What soldier had the shortest life expectancy? 1: physical position (in the field / column) we were getting it with machine gun and mortars. Hats off to them. I won a few times, and even when I did not I benefited from handling the gun under stress. Amazingly, the NVA men then walked a short distance away, sat down and ate lunch. The key may be the word initial since we became more savvy with successive combats and had improved survivability. The first man to die in Vietnam was James Davis, in 1961. Thanks for the reply. Rules may have changed, I was in the Delta region. 4 Charlie Ranallo, were on No. Very Good , I was a radio operator up in I corps in 68 & to me the worst thing was the walking . Both served in A 2/18 1st Infantry Division For some reason, the written word of this article was somehow deleted and lost. BS but ia a way you are correct. TONY DISAGREED> hE SAID TAKE A 19 YEAR OLD, WHO HAS JUST TAKEN TWO ROUNDS TO HIS BODY, And IS watching his best friend die from multiple, bleeding wounds he wont give a shit about the Geneva Convention. Work Plz. . The fall of Saigon happened 30 April 1975, two years AFTER the American military left Vietnam. Bloody May 1968 Mini TET. 4. 2 Gun.. I put the M60s bipod legs down, lifted the weapon and positioned it on the ground outside the streambed facing the NVA. Two rounds smashed into a log inches above my head. I am one lucky SOB. And us the living that served, who suffer from PTSD ,that figure or percent-aged would be about the greatest of all. Lt lost a finger, same time. Suddenly I realized that my platoon sergeant was screaming at me to stop firing. Wow I was 31.8 Gun shot Carried model 1200 Winchester shot gun WIA May 68 Article was great. In the hands of a well-trained machine gunner, the M60 was a devastating weaponso feared by our opponents that they usually aimed their first shots at the machine gunners, who were often in positions exposed to enemy fire. If you would like to get a copy, and cant find it, let me know, and I will make sure you get one. The enemy fire ceased, and we made arrangements to collect our dead before continuing on to Company A. Different strokes for different folks in war fer sure. Vietnam Veterans are less likely to be in prison only one-half of one percent of Vietnam Veterans have been jailed for crimes. Not long after the artillery barrage ended, the North Vietnamese swept through 4th Platoon and executed some of the survivors. DeLong was later killed attempting to escape from a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp in Cambodia. Was a door gunner and crew chief for just shy of 18 months (I extended to get out early). The helicopter provided unprecedented mobility. I saw killed and wounded everywhere in our combat operations. I've never heard about the life expectancy of 6 weeks (even with a short google search). No. An interesting comment I had. See you in the next life!!!!! Over the next two months, we exchanged fire with groups of the NVA. Mi hermana se sorprende N-F C-F Cl-F F-F 2 Answers C-F is the most polar. I personally carried 300 rounds of ammo at all times, one belt in the gun and two across my chest. estimated education differentials in life expectancy for Veterans in 2011-14 are close to those of U. S. population in 1979-89. Deltoid muscle _____ 2. I never thought of it that way before but have many times since. The Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File of the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Extract Files contains records of 58,220 U.S. military fatal casualties of the Vietnam War. Before he was drafted Renza had worked as a hairdresser for women in his hometown of Peekskill, New York. Love this analysis. I didnt want any medals. 10 1/2 months in the bush. Gotta say I think you hit it on the nose. EACH OF US CARRIES OUR OWN MEMORIES AND THEY RUN THE GAMUT. We were very, lucky. 1,713,823 of those who served in Vietnam were still alive as of August, 1995 (census figures). Some 23% of Vietnam vets had fathers with professional, managerial 5 Answers There is no word like addressal. Helicopters, F4 fighters. _____ 1. These records were transferred into the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration in 2008. Tony told me that either he or I would greet all incoming troops and we did- and here is the speech we gave to them. Yes, I made E4 at graduation, that was considered a NCO then. This was another example in the Vietnam War of an inaccuracy becoming the perceived truth. They kept coming up the hill bringing more bodies to me until all seven had been found. How could we lose a war we had already stopped fighting? Address: 561 E Hines Hill Road Hudson, Ohio 44236 Phone: 1-800-650-0659 / 330-655-5050 Fax: 330-653-3750 Email: [emailprotected], Retail Store Hours: Monday-Friday: 9am - 5pm EST Saturdays: 10am -3pm (Oct-Jan) Sundays: Closed. So I guess I defied the odds. of what was usually 5 or 6 going in and many times the leads would find traps, punji pits or the VC waiting. In an instant the jungle erupted in gunfire. 1st Cav, 101st, etc. He was killed in an ambush along with three others. Background [ edit] Activated in 1915, as the 173rd Infantry Brigade, the unit saw service in World War II but is best known for its actions during the Vietnam War. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. I think those numbers are percentages of US KIA, not mortality times. Around 3 p.m., when Grandstaff realized we were about to be overrun, he called in artillery right on top of our location. My first tour was as an advisor to the VN Abn. Fact: Servicemen who went to Vietnam from well-to-do areas had a slightly elevated risk of dying because they were more likely to be pilots or infantry officers. Papitto Opportunity Connections Mission: The Papitto Opportunity Connection (POC) is a private foundation dedicated to listening and working together with Rhode Islands BIPOC communities to empower and create individual success stories by investing in education, job skills training, and entrepreneurial ventures. The planes doing the bombing near the village were VNAF (Vietnam Air Force) and were being flown by Vietnamese pilots in support of South Vietnamese troops on the ground. They were lazy, cowardly and of questionable loyalty, especially the RUFF/PUFFS, and they would steal your under ware if given half a chance. I prayed I would not have to fire over the heads of the 4th Platoon troops entering the draw to retrieve our dead. Was No. Totally bogus. 3 Answers C5H5N in water > C5H5NH+ & OH- Kb = [C5H5NH+] [OH-] / [C5H5N] 1.5e-9 = [x] 1. Be glad you served with a soldiers soldier like LTC Herbert. 11,465 of those killed were younger than 20 years old. I know the scouts in my company had a slightly longer rate but not much. Umm..maybe its because we also learn from experience. A dense mass of elephant grass hung over the riverbank, and he ducked under it. Thats my experience. I always felt that Infantry units were in more danger because of ambush issues and no permanent defensive structures. As we were, steadily building up, our area for protection. 1 Gun had registered its first kill. Also: for years I have read those life-expectancy numbers never really understanding them, but also noting that they wildly vary. It had a crew of 4 (forward gunner, the coxswain (steering and driving) and the two aft gunners. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Look for the blue accessibility symbol floating on every page of our website and click on it to tailor your viewing experience to your particular disability. In Vietnam 70% 0f the casualties were Infantry BUT it might be 70% of ALL the Infantry that served in Vietnam. This has been going on for about a week Every time I try to watch a video on Youtube from my laptop I get instantly redirected to "gslbeacon.ligit.com." Thanks for the perceived loss and the countless assassinations and torture visited upon Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians goes mainly to the American media and their undying support-by-misrepresentation of the anti-War movement in the United States. Still, militarily, the Tet Offensive was a total defeat of the Communist forces on all fronts. See also: Population How Many Vietnam War Veterans Are Still Alive? If youre American (which you probably are), I could give a f***. A former expert with the M60 machine gun shares his experiences wielding the fearsome weapon in Vietnam. Very memorable comments. The average life expectancy of a Soviet soldier during the height of the battle was just 24 hours. I, in turn, would take an M16 rifle, which felt like a feather in comparison. He decided to stay even though he had a deep feeling he wasnt going to make it. When Roeski got hit, I took over the M-60. The peace settlement was signed in Paris on 27 January 1973. Our Aussie Dust off choppers had door gunners, we worked on the theory if the Noggies would shot at Red Cross choppers, we would return fire, Aussie grunt, 60000 00 Aussies fought in Vietnam, Up the Old Red Rooster and more beer. Both were infantry in WW2. The blasts from the AMMO, really lit up the whole area. Roger Loves you too, Im sure. By this census, FOUR OUT OF FIVE WHO CLAIM TO BE VIETNAM VETS ARE NOT. 5 seconds. Of those killed, 61% were younger than 21 years old. He retired in 2012 and lives in Delray Beach, Florida. Bravo, 3/187th Inf, 101st Airborne Div, 2nd Plt, 2nd Sq, Hamburger Hill, May 69. endstream endobj startxref Sholly injured an ankle, and 1st Lt. Cary Allen took command of Company B. In the last 5 years the symptoms of PTSD and AO are starting getting worse in me. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. Its just (bad) luck, fate, randomness theres no right or wrong, no justice or fairness, no reasoning. I spent my year in Vietnam with the 1/22nd infantry part of the 4th division. When I popped back up to put out some automatic fire, a bullet whizzed by my earno more than an inch from my headand slammed into the tree next to me, shattering the bark. 2. I was already lugging around a 24-pound weapon, 300 rounds of ammo and a pack that weighed a good 45 pounds. That means you lose five RTOs in 5 seconds. The average age of the 58,148 killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years (Although 58,169 names are in the Nov. 93 database, only 58,148 have both event date and birth date. Grab some friends and go outside. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. Life Expectancy of the World Population. 99% of infantry men will currently live to die of natural causes. His body was torn to pieces. Theres 58,276. Change). His comparison to a FB was that if we were fired on we returned fire and requested assistance when needed. The earliest casualty record contains a date of death of . 23,24 This study found that the death rate for Vietnam veterans was 1.3 times that for non-Vietnam veterans; however, the excess deaths were limited to Engineer Corps members (RR, 2.5). All of the next day, we could see SMOKE from the fire caused by the explosions of the AMMO at, the AMMO DUMP. Quickly learned to control rate of fire. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star in 1974. The 4th Platoon survivors stayed put for the night. Five RTOs. 1ST MAW 66-68. U.S. Wings is a manufacturer and a supplier. I was constantly untangling the barrel and bipod of the gun from grasping vines and branches. Photo above is of Stanley Kober with RTO, John Scheur. Seattle, Washington(WA), 98106. During that same Census count, the number of Americans falsely claiming to have served was: 9,492,958. Most of us have memories of these kind of experiences. Our patrols were typically about 14 hours 24/7 We operated of old LSTs and large barges. They were all up there scanning the terrain and looking for signs. I was trained as a RTO in 1970 at Fort Ord then went to Fort Gordon for teletype school, my MOS was 05C20 when I finished. I applaud your courage as I know an RTOs job is essential, difficult (carrying the weight of his radio transmitter, his rifle, his ammo, and his rucksack), and dangerous as the enemy surely wanted to knock out any communications for support. I was lucky too but VN never left me. No. Remember he wanted to reenlist for one more year in Vietnam. My friend May, I later learned, was doing the same thing in 2nd Platoon. I assisted Vessey and Capt Cartwright by helping prepare the Bee Hive Rounds (first time they were ever used), firing 4 rounds at proximity 0 range into a human wave attack on or weak side after 5 hours of relentless attacks on the opposite side of the perimeter Those 4 rounds killed @ 400 enemy soldiers, of the 881 total enemy losss John Vessey later became a 4 Star general and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs appointed by Reagan 1983, and at retirement became Chair of the POW MIA Commission for 14 years, Passing away in August 2016 just 6 months before our 50th Reunion. They were glad to see me as it had been a while for replacements with the unit. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. I would suspect that stating with any accuracy the life span of a grunt like me, or any other MOS, would be pretty much pure speculation. It called for release of all U.S. prisoners, withdrawal of U.S. forces, limitation of both sides forces inside South Vietnam and a commitment to peaceful reunification. If it was your day to get hit or die, it happened. If you were an administrative officer or clerk in an air-conditioned trailer in Saigon, your war might be a lot like peacetime duty. Cruz quite a lot.