The young man died in the line of military duty in December, he was 20 years old. The same profile holds true for the Marine Corps, where 87 percent of all officer casualties (821 of 938) were warrant officers, lieutenants or captains. This brochure provides a catalog of military specialty license plates available for you. Dan Bullock, a boy from Brooklyn, was the youngest American killed in the war. 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. That area had a history of communist insurgency dating back to French colonial days. Nevertheless, 336,111 men were phased into the service under this plan (mostly the Army) and 2,072 were killed. The radio transmitter was put out of operation and an unknown number of Viet Cong killed and captured. Protestants were 64.4 percent (37,483), Catholics were 28.9 percent (16,806). WASHINGTON Nearly eight decades after a 21 . The mine was triggered a little late and exploded just after the truck passed over it. In the second large truck was Pvt. (Surprisingly, as it turned out, the percentage of Vietnam veterans who applied for the GI Bill was higher than either World War II or Korea. Dan Bullock, in his Marine dress blues. They Say He Burned Down the Reichstag. Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings. Decisions were placed in the hands of teenagers. Elmwood Cemetery, Goldsboro, Wayne County, North Carolina, U.S. "A Marine Too Young To Drive, Let Alone Die Pfc. He is listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having a casualty date of June 8, 1956. All were nurses, all were single and all but one were in their 20s. Spc. In early February, his mother and father went to their son's colleagues and handed over a large humanitarian cargo to the . The great tragedy of that period, which began in 1969, was that nobody in positions of command and power really thought the war could be won, said Max Hastings, the author of Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975. The number of people Nixon and Kissinger were willing to preside over dying while trying to make this look not as bad was extremely cynical., As for Vietnamization, Hastings said, it was really just Vietnamizing the corpses.. From there, we were to bank to the left and begin our descent to the LZ about 5 clicks [kilometers/3 miles] to the south. | Then I heard and felt the explosion and the sound of automatic weaponsthen silence.. The major service academies and other military colleges provided close to 900 of the Vietnam officer casualties: the U.S. Military Academy, 278; the U.S. Air Force Academy, 205; the U.S. FAQ: How To Get Veteran License Plates In Texas? Early in the war (1965 and 1966) when blacks made up about 11 percent of our Vietnam force, black casualties soared to more than 20 percent of the total. Thus it is safe to say that Hispanic-Americans were over-represented among Vietnam casualties an estimated 5.5 percent of the dead against 4.5 percent of the 1970 population. The Marine Corps losses were skewed even more to the lower ranks, 91 percent were privates or corporals. The DOD database shows that of the 2,100,000 men and women who served in Vietnam, 58,152 were killed. Or doesn't he count? A former Australian solider who served in Afghanistan has died suddenly aged 33. Charles McMahon (May 10, 1953 - April 29, 1975) and Darwin Lee Judge (February 16, 1956 - April 29, 1975) were the last two United States servicemen killed in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. All classes were drafted or volunteered and all served and died equally, although it must be noted that most blacks died separately. 4 James T. Davis lost his life tracking down an enemy signal in Vietnam, James T. Tom Davis was sent to Vietnam in May 1961 with a secretive intelligence unit that went into the field with equipment to pinpoint enemy radio transmitters. Later in the war and for many decades beyond, this would be known as The Lonely Buddha. Cramer had graduated, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Army's first Vietnam casualty. But Was He Drugged Into Confessing? As a result, it was mainly the families of Navy and Air Force pilots and crewmen who suffered the great agony of the POW (prisoner of war) and MIA (missing in action) experience that came out of the Vietnam War. If the demographic is expanded to 17- to 21- years, then we find there were 83 percent of Marine enlisted casualties, and 65 percent of Army enlisted casualties. As one walks the Wall slowly, examining the ineffably American names, one is struck by the same recurring surnames. The shining surface is intended to reflect the sun, the ground and those who stand before it. These men earned his respect and the respect of the nation. It forces us to the conclusion that many of those names on the wall were kids who just couldnt quite get it together in high school, a little late in maturing intellectually, and didnt have the resources or the guile to get out of the way when the war came. It is instructive to read the literature of the war, the letters written home from those who died, the novels and narrative accounts of those who served in combat and then returned. For more stories from Vietnam magazine, subscribe and visit us on Facebook. When their transmitter came up, it nearly blew out my eardrums. The transmitter appeared to be sited in vast pineapple fields south of the villages of Cau Xang and Chau Hiep. But Was He Drugged Into Confessing? According to the drivers testimony, the attackers searched Davis for anything of value including his watch. The Oldest WW2 Soldier, who died aged 92 in 1946 Simple History 4.2M subscribers Join Subscribe 46K Share Save 1.1M views 1 year ago Thanks to Keeps for sponsoring this video! [2] Fitzgibbon was a veteran of the United States Navy, having served during World War II. Lower end category IVs consisting of those who scored below 20 on the AFQT were usually rejected for service. On average, 43 percent of white enlisted entrants placed in categories I and II (scoring 65 to 100) and 57 percent in categories III and IV (scoring 10 to 64). During that same Census count, the number of Americans falsely claiming to have served was: 9,492,958. Maj. Steven Hutchison of Scottsdale, Ariz., served in Vietnam and wanted to re-enlist after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, but his wife was against it, his brother said. Of 2,590 total Air Force casualties, 1,674 or 65 percent were officers. What was the life expectancy of a helicopter pilot in Vietnam? The Army conducted an official ceremony in October 2007 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, from which Capt. History Short: What was the First Movie to Gross over $1 Billion? In 2004, the total is 58,241 names. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today! The Marine Corps lost 14,836, or 5 percent of its own men. This event was the first major symbol of American combat power in Vietnam and the beginning of a new era of airmobility in the U.S. Army. Army Specialist Five Fred Jenkins, of the 25th Infantry Division died April 2, 1968 by drowning. The three Dec. 22 teams needed to complete their mission and get out as fast as possible. How many Smiths can there possibly be who died in Vietnam? Steve Piscitelli was a lance corporal in the Marines who had enlisted at 18. The three teams were nearing their destination by midmorning with the villages of Cau Xang and Chau Hiep just ahead. The Pentagon said Steven Hutchison died Sunday in Basra of wounds suffered when the roadside bomb detonated near his vehicle in Al Farr. Later, he was assigned to help secure Iraqs southern border. Clarke fled the shooting scene and exchanged fire with Vietnamese policemen who were chasing him. Justin Christopher House passed away on February 2 in Bangkok, where he was living. The feeling is that the poor, the undereducated and the minorities made up the vast majority of the combat arms during that war. Among other countries that fought for South Vietnam, South Korea had more than 4,000 dead . Frederick was 21 years old & from Somerville, Massachusetts. The war was a comedy of horror. [7] This was because President Lyndon B. Johnson had declared in a speech that Army Security Agency technician Spec/4 James T. Davis, who died in a Viet Cong ambush near the village of Cau Xang on December 22, 1961, was "the first American killed in the resistance to aggression in Vietnam. This came at a time when blacks made up 11 percent of the male population nationwide. The study came up with a most likely Vietnamese death toll of 882,000, which included 655,000 adult males (above 15 years of age), 143,000 adult females, and 84,000 children. William Nolde was born in Michigan in 1929 and was drafted during the Korean War. Two teams believed they were at good signal detection points, but Tom was not satisfied with the quality of his signal and had made a request by radio to Control Net for permission to move to a better location, Bergman recalled. They shot the American in the head, killing him. Killed were Springle, 52, from Beaufort, N.C.; Houseal, 54, of Amarillo, Texas; Army Sgt. [4] He said he wanted to become a pilot, a police officer, or a U.S. Some went to Canada or Sweden, but few of those who evaded the draft were actually prosecuted and most were eventually pardoned by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. They also died quickly, many within a few weeks or months of arriving in Vietnam. Through Fitzgibbon's great-grandmother, Mary Coston Fitzgibbon, Fitzgibbon was third cousin to South African artist Jeremy Wafer. The teams established a 3-mile baseline along Highway 10 near Cau Xang and waited for the Viet Cong transmissions to begin. John O'Neil Rucker (right) of Linden, Texas, killed at Da Nang only hours . My Account The earliest casualty record contains a date of death of June 8, 1956, and the most recent casualty record contains a date of death of May 28, 2006. He was 15 years old and had been in-country nearly one month. It was the most horrific thing. It may come as a surprise to some that 63.3 percent of all Vietnam enlisted casualties were not draftees but volunteers. 4 Tom Davis (left) of Livingston, Tenn., who was killed 12/22/61 near Duc Noa, South Vietnam, while serving as an adviser to South Vietnamese troops. Saigon: In all wars there must be a first death and a last death; and while they are no different from all the thousands that separate them, they somehow seem specially tragic. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. Army Maj . They refer to older or younger siblings who are either in or on their way to college. Ages range from 97 to 55 years old (born between 1918 and 1960). Another son, Robert "Bobby" Fitzgibbon, died in April 2011. Of the 7,262 blacks who died, 6,955, or 96 percent, were Army and Marine enlisted men. John M. Russell at the combat stress clinic at Camp Liberty in Iraq. With the end of the Cold War, many now believe that at its outset the Vietnam War was a quite honorable extension of our ultimately successful policy of Communist containment; that our effort in Vietnam became flawed because of political and strategic failures having nothing to do with those who died there; and that these young Americans were asked by three presidents and six Congresses to give up their lives so that freedom would have a better chance in the world. Fitzgibbon died from his wounds on June 8, 1956. ; and Pfc. [5][6], For 43 years, Fitzgibbon's death was regarded by the United States government as too early to be classified as a Vietnam War casualty. First Sgt. Inscription at the beginning of The Wall. Christian E. Bueno-Galdos, 25, of Paterson, N.J.; Spc. What will be the evolving historical judgment for those names on the Wall? The two men, both U.S. Marines, were killed in a rocket attack one day before the Fall of Saigon . The family, friends, and students of William Nolde have established a scholarship at Central Michigan in Noldes name as another testament to this patriot. Only 5 to 10 percent of enlisted men in the combat units were estimated to have had some college, and less than 1 percent of these enlisted men were college graduates. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Some recent studies tend to refute what had been the perceived wisdom of social scientists and other commentators that our Vietnam dead came overwhelmingly from the poor communities. Its hard to describe, but they had the instinct of a combat veteran, and they picked up on something in Dan, Mr. Piscitelli explained. [8] Both father and son are interred at Blue Hill Cemetery in Braintree, Massachusetts. There was no superstition. > Arriving by helicopter, they picked up the wounded driver and retrieved the bodies of Davis and the nine dead ARVN soldiers. He was the youngest American service member to be killed in the Vietnam War. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. About The Department of Defense (DoD) directorate that handled the Vietnam Veterans Memorial originally started its database at January 1, 1961. On January 27, 1973, about 11 hours before the cease fire marking the official end of American involvement in the Vietnam War, Colonel William Nolde, US Army, age 43, was killed by artillery fire at An Loc, South Vietnam. In the typical process, once the transmissions begin an operator shoots a bearing using a radio direction finder, a receiver that picks up the transmitters signal and determines the direction its coming from. He was younger, and he didnt belong. The point at which the three lines intersect should be the location of the enemy transmitter. The officer corps casualties alone would satisfy that judgment, but that is not the same as being representative. January 28, 1915: US Coast Guard is Formed By an Act of Congress, History Short: Black History Month, US Congress, July 28, 1866: 18 Year Old Girl Wins Commission to Sculpt Statue of Lincoln (A Truly Great American Woman), December 24, 1865: Birth of the Ku Klux Klan, December 25, 1868: President Johnson Pardons all Confederate Veterans. This article appeared in the February 2022 issue of Vietnam magazine. According to his family, Davis was an outdoor person who spent most of his time fishing, hunting, trapping and roaming the woods. Can 17 year olds go to war? For several months during the fall of 1961 intelligence reports indicated a significant increase in enemy troop strength and activity around the town of Duc Hoa in Hau Nghia province, some 15 miles west of Saigon. Once completed, notes are compared. > Some of the Marines were even drinking beers. He lived in North Carolina until he was about 12, when his mother died and he and his younger sister, Gloria, moved to Brooklyn to live with their father and his wife. In answer to John Kerrys question, if you are asking a true patriot, you simply ask and he follows to serve as needed. As Maya Ling Lin, the architect of the Wall, has said: It was as if the black-brown earth were polished and made into an interface between the sunny world and the quiet dark world beyond that we cannot enter. During the pursuit, Clarke jumped or fell to his death from a second-story balcony. Once he learned, Dans father, Brother Bullock, said that his sons enthusiasm about the service kept the family from notifying officials about his age, according to The Times. And mores the pity, because many of them were trying to escape this background and didnt make it. On the day he was shot, Fitzgibbon had apparently reprimanded Clarke for an incident on a flight that day. [6][7] Bullock graduated from boot camp on December 10, 1968. He served with the 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley, Kan. By December, teams from the 3rd Radio Research Unit had begun to make forays into that area searching for a suspected communist transmitter. Davis survived the explosion unscathed. He immediately threw the satchel into the water to keep it out of enemy hands and returned to the truck as small arms-fire cracked all around him. At this whole battle of Delta sector, there was not one officer there.. UPI Photos We flew in at 500 feet and initiated a 500 foot per minute decent.. The sole survivor of the ambush was Davis ARVN driver. When he enlisted in the Marines last Sept. 18, he was 14. Shortly after midnight, North Vietnamese sappers what the Americans called the elite stealth troops crept through the barbed wire around the bunker encampment. > This amounted to 4.1 percent of all enlisted casualties in Vietnam. The morning following the Dec. 22 ambush, 30 CH-21s of the 8th and 57th Transportation companies were loaded with several hundred troops from ARVNs elite Airborne Brigade. Richard Hutchison said yesterday that when she died, a part of him died, so he signed up in July 2007 at age 59. The operator draws a line on a map from his location outward in the direction of the signal. The Army also said that Army Cpl. The similar operations conducted by radio research teams in recent weeks had not gone unnoticed by communist forces in the area. Question for students (and subscribers):If you have any thoughts or opinions about the Vietnam War or Americas wars in general, please share them with your fellow readersin the comments section below this article. Navy Lieutenant Commander Leo Hester died March 10, 1967 in an aircraft crash. The widely held notion that the poor served and died in Vietnam while the rich stayed home is way off the mark. Who was the oldest soldier killed in the Vietnam War? Digging Deeper During the Vietnam War, the Navy and Air Force became substantially white enclaves enlisted and officer casualties were 96 percent white. The names of those who gave their lives and of those who remain missing are inscribed in the order they were taken from us. The DOD database listed precise religious preferences for the 58,152 Vietnam casualties. Perhaps more important, many of them probably did not yet fully understand their own mortality and were therefore less likely to be hesitant in combat. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. Spc. By the summer of 1969, the Vietnam War was a lost cause, and had been for some time, in the minds of many, including some senior Pentagon staff members, State Department officials, the Washington intelligentsia and the foreign press corps not to mention the former secretary of defense and chief architect of the war, Robert McNamara. How Does A Veteran Receive His Purple Heart. ARMY AND MARINE OFFICER CASUALTIES BY RANK AND AGE. U.S. personnel in Vietnam in May 1961 were assigned to Military Assistance Advisory Group-Vietnam, formed in November 1955. Dan Bullock (December 21, 1953 June 7, 1969) was a United States Marine and the youngest U.S. serviceman killed in action during the Vietnam War,[1] dying at the age of 15. Shortly thereafter, the ASA formed the 3rd Radio Research Unit. We were looking for a large sugar mill near the distinctive Y intersection with the An Ha and the Kinh Xang canals, Knight, who retired as a colonel, said in an interview with this articles author. Army and Marine officer casualties were also quite young. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. Major Dan is a retired veteran of the United States Marine Corps. | Army spokesman Lt. Col. Nathan Banks said Thursday that Hutchison was the oldest Army soldier killed in Iraq. A Friend Who Lives In Mount Laurel Is Pushing To Have That Sacrifice Recognized", "Only The Good Die Young: In Memory Of PFC. George Washington had complained vociferously about the flood of questionable foreign volunteers. FAQ What Happens If You Pretend To Be A Veteran? Those who could have qualified for college probably did not have the funds or motivation. Indeed, officer casualties of all branches were overwhelmingly white. Jacob D. Barton, 20, of Lenox, Mo. What the MIT study almost certainly showed was that members of the so-called working class consisting of carpenters, electricians, plumbers, firemen, policemen, technicians, skilled factory operatives, farmers, etc., were living in middle class communities and were, therefore, part of our burgeoning middle class. George Washington had complained vociferously about the flood of questionable foreign volunteers. The one life that U.S. Marine Dan Bullock had to give for his country lasted just 15 years, five months and 17 days. Who were they? Nolde thus became the last official US combat casualty of that war, and a footnote in history.if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[580,400],'historyandheadlines_com-medrectangle-3','ezslot_5',140,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-historyandheadlines_com-medrectangle-3-0'); William Nolde was more than an historical footnote, however, a real life person and patriot, a husband, and a decorated soldier (veteran of the Korean War as well as Vietnam War), and had worked as a college professor at Central Michigan University prior to his military career. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. Eight women were killed in Vietnam, five Army lieutenants, one Army captain, one Army lieutenant colonel and one Air Force captain. One additional factor, often overlooked, that influenced volunteer enlistment was military tradition the influence of fathers, grandfathers, brothers, uncles and others who had served in previous 20th century wars. Answer (1 of 2): Dan Bullock (December 21, 1953 - June 7, 1969) was a United States Marine and the youngest U.S. serviceman killed in action during the Vietnam War, dying at the age of 15. It called for the registration of all 18 to 26-year old males, with induction to take place at 18 1/2 if so ordered by the local draft board. The hardened troops who sometimes spent up to 30 days out on patrols were immediately wary of the boy, though. The young enlisted volunteer or draftee had not had much time to form any complicated theories about our Vietnam commitment. We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website. Thus, there were 211,455 killed and wounded, or one in every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam. Contents1 Do veterans get free, The Purple Heart Medal is awarded to members of the armed forces of the U.S. who are wounded by an instrument of war in the hands of the enemy and posthumously to the next of kin in the name of those who are killed in action or die of wounds, Active duty members can visit the DFAS tax statement website at: https://www.dfas.mil/MilitaryMembers/taxinfo/taxstatements/ to request or view their tax statements. Naval Academy, 130; Texas A & M, 112; The Citadel, 66; Virginia Military Institute, 43; Virginia Polytechnic Institute, 26; Norwich University, 19. Bullock had plans to become a firefighter or police officer once he returned stateside. Others, later in the war, were simply ineligible because of high lottery number. His son Bert M. Jenkins, an Army Warrant officer with the U.S. Army's First Infantry Division, died April 28, 1969, while his aircraft was on convoy ambush support between An Loc and Lai Khe when he was hit in the head by ground fire. The term radio research was chosen to disguise the units secret connection to the ASA. 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. Bullock was born in Goldsboro, North Carolina. In 1995 Vietnam released its official estimate of the number of people killed during the Vietnam War: as many as 2,000,000 civilians on both sides and some 1,100,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. Thank you! The three-quarter-ton truck brought up the rear, with Davis in the front passenger seat. Fitzgibbon's name was added to the Vietnam Memorial Wall on May 31, 1999, and Today Show host Katie Couric interviewed members of his family for the occasion. The most recent mission took place on Dec. 18 when the unit detected very strong radio signals from the suspected transmitter. Proposed bills could lead to more people being forced into mental health treatment, San Diego police want to use smart street lights again, add license plate readers, Should backcountry builders fund city sidewalks and bike lanes? Dan Bullock Was Only 15 When He Was Killed In Vietnam. The newly formed ASA radio research unit developed plans for two operations. They Say He Burned Down the Reichstag. > Many of them, as experienced pilots, were older (two thirds were thirty or older) and many were high ranking. The 1970 census which is being used as our Vietnam era population base did not list an Hispanic count but gave an estimate of 4.5 percent of the American population. "U.S. Army Sergeant Frederick James O'Connor Jr. was killed in action on February 27, 1968 in Kontum Province, South Vietnam. Articles are mostly written by either Dr. Zar or his dad (Major Dan). No other American war has presented such a young profile in combat. General Giap is the oldest surviving general officer (from either side) at 98. In the military it can be somewhat more deadly. All were returned to Saigon on an aircraft that was part of the 57th Transportation Company (Light Helicopter), which had arrived in Vietnam less than two weeks earlier. Mr. Piscitelli noticed Bullocks awkward reticence right away. Still, no one has been charged with her murder. PHOENIX - A 60-year-old Vietnam War veteran killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq has become the oldest Army soldier to die in that conflict. Despite his youth, he was physically solid at about 5 feet 9 inches and 160 pounds and managed to get through the notoriously grueling Marine boot camp at Parris Island, S.C., and then on to Vietnam without being found out. Having moved with his family from Goldsboro, N.C., a few years earlier, after the death of his mother, Dan Bullock was living in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn when he enlisted, against his fathers wishes. On the morning of Dec. 22, 1961, three trucks carrying members of the 3rd Radio Research Unit, their intelligence counterparts in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and an ARVN security detail rolled out the gate of their compound at Tan Son Nhut Air Base on the outskirts of Saigon. Since the days of Alexander the Great and the Roman Legions, it has always been the young, inexperienced, low-ranking enlisted man who has taken the brunt of combat casualties. In civilian life, poor aptitude testing can have a tremendous negative impact, whether for college placement or for simple job advancement. In this study we will refer to casualties as the 58,152 who died in Vietnam, but it should be emphasized that there were 153,303 who were wounded seriously enough to be hospitalized. This compound was a high-security area surrounded by barbed wire fences. "Sky Soldier." Hero." 151, First & Last Soldier Killed in Vietnam War. He retired as a superintendent of Natural Resources in Howard County, Maryland, in 2015. On January 27, 1973, about 11 hours before the cease fire marking the official end of American involvement in the Vietnam War, Colonel William Nolde, US Army, age 43, was killed by artillery fire at An Loc, South Vietnam. The popularity of the GI Bill after Vietnam emphasized this yearning. -- William Black The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. At first he struggled to make it through, but was able to do so with the help of one of his fellow recruits. Of the 8000 Coast guardsmen who served in Vietnam, 3 officers and 4 enlisted men were killed and 59 were wounded. They did not, in most cases, carry the burdens of wife or children. On Saigons wish list were equipment, personnel and training to support an intelligence program to monitor the communications of the North Vietnamese-backed Viet Cong. January 27, 1973: The Last American Combat Casualty of the Vietnam War, Animated Map of the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine (through March 1st, 2023). In 2019, a North Carolina state historical marker honoring his life was erected near his childhood home in Goldsboro NC. The oldest GI killed in Vietnam was 62 years old. 3 Sponsored by Forbes Advisor Are You Prepared for Your Pet Health Emergencies? And his actions, hiding, he wanted to keep his secret. November 23, 1876: Boss Tweed Turned Over to Authorities. World War II had been, for the most part, a perfect war, clear of purpose, the forces of democracy and freedom lined up against the forces of fascism and tyranny. Through the efforts of his sister Alice Fitzgibbon Rose DelRossi, a former Stoneham, Massachusetts selectwoman, Fitzgibbon's name was added to the Vietnam War Memorial on Memorial Day in May 1999. One of Fitzgibbon's sons, Marine Lance Corporal Richard B. Fitzgibbon III (March 11, 1944 September 7, 1965), was also killed in the Vietnam War. In early 1961, under increasing pressure from communist guerrillas, the South Vietnamese government requested additional assistance, including military support from the United States. (Davis family via Mark Raab), https://www.historynet.com/first-us-soldier-killed-vietnam/, Jerrie Mock: Record-Breaking American Female Pilot. Dan Bullock died at age 15 in 1969 and efforts to recognize the young African-American Marine continue and are highlighted in this 2017 Military Times d. 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Fled the shooting scene and exchanged fire with Vietnamese policemen who were chasing him youngest American killed the! It through, but that is not the same recurring surnames Forbes Advisor are Prepared! The teams established a 3-mile baseline along Highway 10 near Cau Xang and Chau Hiep Navy, having served World. That fought for South Vietnam, 58,152 were killed is way off the mark put... The line of military specialty license plates available for you job advancement Clarke jumped or fell to his death a... Mark the 50th anniversary of the 25th Infantry Division died April 2, 1968 ( Davis oldest soldier killed in vietnam... They picked up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance death from a second-story balcony suspected transmitter number! Christian E. Bueno-Galdos, 25, of the 8000 Coast oldest soldier killed in vietnam who in. All times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings a young profile in combat and 25,000... 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