Names On The Wall: A Closer Look At Those Who Died In Vietnam

Additionally, many of the names on the wall were other teenagers from the suburban white collar communities with siblings who were in, or would go on to college, but who, as individuals themselves, were slow to mature, struggled through high school and were therefore very available for the Vietnam War. 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. They often reveal a typically warm American family atmosphere. They refer to older or younger siblings who are either in or on their way to college. And they often show a heartbreakingly wry sense of humor with the same sensibilities as their college-bound peers. It forces us to the conclusion that many of those names on the wall were kids who just couldn’t quite get it together in high school, a little late in maturing intellectually, and didn’t have the resources or the guile to get out of the way when the war came.

What will be the evolving historical judgment for those names on the Wall? 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. As one stands before the Wall one feels that no other judgment is acceptable to their living memory. 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. The names would become the memorial. There was no need to embellish. Postscript: Since 1982, there have been 89 names added to The Wall. In 2004, the total is 58,241 names.

The article was written by Bill Abbott, an independent researcher and writer. He was a Navy enlisted man during World War II and has a degree in Political Science from Duke University. The article was originally published in the June 1993 issue of Vietnam Magazine and updated in November 2004.

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2 Comments to “Names On The Wall: A Closer Look At Those Who Died In Vietnam”
The statistics given are schewed when USAF USCG,and USN services, heavily represented by career specialists and fixed wing pilots, are included. Naturally exeptions must be made for special operations within the combat zone by (comparatively) very small units from these services. Despite numbers of pilots in these services that were lost, the fact is that the vast majority of casulties in this war were in the Marines and Army enlisted ranks, lower ranked officer and warrant officer (flight), and in the traditional combat MOS categories. Males enlisted for many reasons. My reason and that of many comrades in arms was the desire to avoid being drafted into the Marines. The 2 year enlistment RA gave an outwardly better chance of surviving if being drafted appeared inevitable…as it was for me. The draft made it virtually impossible for a male to become employed at most companies if he had a 1-a status, as they did not want to spend money on training draft bait or be tied with a drafted worker and the issues of post service reemployment. Enlistment for 2 years was the only option short of a quick marriage and immediate multiple pregnancies. The option of service in the Coast Guard, navy or air force was subject to highly competitive entry requirements and, in many cases, connections with political figures. A better assessment would be to evaluate the losses by age and MOS. My information places the average age of Army and Marine KIA and DOW at 19 years and 2 months. Similar studies on WWII place the same measure at 28, Korea at 24, and for the Civil War in the thirties. The main reason cited is the virtual exemption from Vietnam Service for NG and ER, especially in the combat arms units. Casulty numbers are also schewed by bean counters in government by including a very wide theater description that extended well outside the Vietnam combat operational area to units that did not serve in Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos. Finally, even inside the combat arms, there was a grading system which placed combat MOS in field units by in country assignments. Units like the 1st Air Cavalry, 82nd Airborne, 173rd Airborne, and 1st Division got high “draft” picks. Units like the Americal, 4th Division, and 101st (Now called “Airmobile”) were favored with lower quality (and much more likely to be drafted) remnants. If my memory serves, the Americal (23rd Division) was 80% enlisted Draftee in 2 of it’s brigades in 1970. The same applied to assignment of military academy junior officers. “Elite” units such as the 1st Cavalry and 82nd Abn got combat arms officers from the academy and the Americal got ROTC and, even worse, OCS officers with virtually no field skills, or West Pointers with non combat arms experience transferred from a missle silo in Montana. Ted Macinski

By Ted J. Macinski on Jul 4, 2008 at 3:07 pm
its good for my report on vietnamese.

By malikathompson on Oct 24, 2008 at 7:29 pm

Names On The Wall: A Closer Look At Those Who Died In Vietnam

2 Comments to “Names On The Wall: A Closer Look At Those Who Died In Vietnam”

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