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What was the average life expectancy of a Vietnam soldier?
Average age of men killed: 23.1 years. Five men killed in Vietnam were only 16 years old. The oldest man killed was 62 years old.
What was the life expectancy of a LT in Vietnam?
But Patterson explains that Beckwith’s evaluation wasn’t far from the truth, “The life expectancy of platoon leaders in Vietnam was two weeks and I’m not embellishing this; in a firefight, it was seven seconds.”
What was the life expectancy of a point man in Vietnam?
He was part of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment and his job was point man. “Point man life expectancy is something like 4 to 6 weeks,” Wright remembers.
What was the life expectancy of a forward observer in Vietnam?
Then I learned that second lieutenants in the artillery routinely served as forward observers with a life expectancy of about 20 minutes.
What were the odds of dying in Vietnam?
One out of every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam was a casualty. 58,148 were killed and 304,000 wounded out of 2.7 million who served. Although the percent that died is similar to other wars, amputations or crippling wounds were 300 percent higher than in World War II.
What was the life expectancy of an American soldier in Vietnam?
The shortest life expectancy of an American soldier I’ve heard of was a private who was sent into the front line near Saigon just days before the opening of the Tet Offensive ,and was killed 2 weeks later. Depending on which infantry soldier you’re talking about.
What was the life expectancy of a radio during the Vietnam War?
During the Vietnam War, the odds were tremendously stacked against radio operations — and that 5-second life expectancy was, for some, a grim reality. To make matters worse, you can’t really control the volume on those radios since the dial was on the wearer’s back. Radio chatter could give your position away, too.
How many second lieutenants died during the Vietnam War?
105 Second Lieutenants that had been in rank for under one year were killed (or died of wounds) in 1968. Additionally, 16 individuals who died as Second Lieutenants having served under one year were posthumously promoted to 1st LT.
How many US soldiers died in Viet Nam?
Nearly 2.6 million people served with the US armed forces in Viet Nam. However, only about 20 percent of those served in generally recognized ‘combat’ roles. So for a combat soldier, there was about a 10% chance of being killed in action. On the other hand, combat troops had nearly an even chance of getting wounded, roughly 50%.