He was wounded and suffered permanent disability shortly before his tour was up. I was a 2nd Lt. Infantry platoon Leader. Welcome home!! In your rucksack . It was more or less ” next ” man up . The fact that PDoggbiker can’t find any decent calculation/explanation, tells us a lot. It began just as, it was getting dark. I remember hearing somewhere about an RTO who wasn’t getting the info out correctly and the Lieutenant (Kennedy) grabbed the mic and said “My RTO Is Foxtrot Uniform”. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. From there, they were taken to a base at Da Lat in the central highlands of that nation. 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. I was one of the “many others” I rode river boats in the Mekong Jan 68 to 69. That means that every 4.5 weeks he faced death. Comments were more interesting than the article it self. I was one of the lucky ones – I came home without a physical scratch. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_losses_of… 1st Cav, 101st, etc. 2) by my research, medics suffered 93% casualties with about 33% deaths. So let’s take a look at why the survival rates may be low for some of those jobs indicated above. It's easy! Enjoyed your article. Two points: 1) at least in Army units, Medevacs (dust offs) flew unarmed aircraft. Infantry 1st & 2nd lieutenants: They are the battle coordinators who try to manage the fight on the ground and direct overhead support. So I guess i lasted longer than I was supposed to. This was obviously exaggerated but displays the hazards of this particular military job at the time. means: 1 gets killed the 1st second, another one after 9 seconds – avg. Snipers sought out those individuals with a folded map sticking out of his trouser pocket, grease pencils poking from shirt pockets, and a compass/lanyard hanging from his neck. Also: for years I have read those ‘life-expectancy’ numbers – never really understanding them, but also noting that they wildly vary. He decided to stay even though he had a deep feeling he wasn’t going to make it. A much better approach would be/have been: of all the combat-casualties, what was their [VHPA Databases] Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association Databases. You need to be a member in order to leave a comment. Considering that the average pilot flew 4 times a week, he could expect that during his tour in Vietnam he was flying up against the Grim Reaper on 11.4 of his flights. Like you, I carried a PRC-25 for about 5 months and never got hit. . Hats off to them. This Battle changed his life and his future, had it not been for his actions, every man on this FSB Gold would have died. If you would like to get a copy, and can’t find it, let me know, and I will make sure you get one. Pilots had just over 5% KIA and air crew about 6.75% KIA. John Doever I was with HHC and 1st Platoon C Company in 70-71. According to Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine, “Between 1966 and 1971, one Army helicopter was lost for every 7.9 sorties — 564 pilots, 1,155 crewmen and 682 passengers were killed in accidents alone. 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). A friend recently sent me the link to an article claiming that the life expectancy of a radio operator in the Vietnam War was only 5 seconds. There were two different groups that flew aeromedical evacuations. BUT WE MUST ALSO BE COGNIZANT OF OUR REQUIREMENT TO BE COMPASSIONATE HUMAN BEINGS. That’s what I figured but didn’t know for sure. Four platoons in a rifle company. Thank you in advance! According to popular legend, the door gunner on a Vietnam era Huey gunship had a life-span of 5 minutes. As I remember it the life expectancy was based on after the ambush was sprung or the fire fight started. Huey Door gunners:  Sitting in an open doorway of a helicopter and wearing only a flack jacket, made him the most exposed member of the crew. Often as not he was right beside you with a stolen chicken and a bag of rice. We used to provide cover for these guys. Also , it I might add that the,” Government big wigs,” have a quota [percentage]of a lot of the Military equipment etc that had a certain amount of time to function until it was disable, blow up, wrecked, junk, etc…. It was an HONOR and a privilege to serve with these brave men for my 11 month tour. There’s 58,276. 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. Then he said “you’re on a FB, the enemy always knows your location, can pretty much attack at will, and you really don’t have the capability to retreat.
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