Not Just Numbers, Good Soldiers All

(Do we) find the cost of freedom, buried in the ground
Mother earth will swallow you, lay your body down
Find the cost of freedom, buried in the ground
Mother earth will swallow you, lay your body down

When we go to war we should preconsider out losses against possible gains

There are 58,267 names now listed on that polished black wall, including those added in 2010.


The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized. It is hard to believe it is 36 years since the last casualties.

Beginning at the apex on panel 1E and going out to the end of the East wall, appearing to recede into the earth (numbered 70E - May 25, 1968), then resuming at the end of the West wall, as the wall emerges from the earth (numbered 70W - continuing May 25, 1968) and ending with a date in 1975. Thus the war's beginning and end meet. The war is complete, coming full circle, yet broken by the earth that bounds the angle's open side and contained within the earth itself.

The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth, MA listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having been killed on June 8, 1956.

His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept. 7, 1965.

There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall.

39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger.

The largest age group, 8,283 were just 19 years old

3,103 were 18 years old.

12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old.

5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old.

One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years old.

997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam.

1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnan.

31 sets of brothers are on the Wall.

Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their sons.

54 soldiers on the Wall attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia. I wonder why so many from one school.

8 Women are on the Wall. Nursing the wounded.

244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall.

Beallsville, Ohio with a population of 475 lost 6 of her sons.

West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the nation. There are 711 West Virginians on the Wall.


The Marines of Morenci - They led some of the scrappiest high school football and basketball teams that the little Arizona copper town of Morenci (pop. 5,058) had ever known and cheered. They enjoyed roaring beer busts. In quieter moments, they rode horses along the Coronado Trail, stalked deer in the Apache National Forest. And in the patriotic camaraderie typical of Morenci's mining families, the nine graduates of Morenci High enlisted as a group in the Marine Corps. Their service began on Independence Day, 1966. Only 3 returned home.

The Buddies of Midvale - LeRoy Tafoya, Jimmy Martinez, Tom Gonzales were all boyhood friends and lived on three consecutive streets in Midvale, Utah on Fifth, Sixth and Seventh avenues. They lived only a few yards apart. They played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. And they all went to Vietnam. In a span of 16 dark days in late 1967, all three would be killed. LeRoy was killed on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the fourth anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Jimmy died less than 24 hours later on Thanksgiving Day. Tom was shot dead assaulting the enemy on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

The most casualty deaths for a single day was on January 31, 1968 ~ 245 deaths.

The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 - 2,415 casualties were incurred.

That's 2,415 dead in a single month

Another Soldier's Story

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Getting it Right Means Making it Right

This was written in response to a phone call I got from Art Corley, letting me know that Samuel Boyd Jr's headstone had finally been correctly marked to read, 101st ABN Div, which in long form reads, "101st Airborne Division"

For those of you who expressed an interest in the miss-marked headstone of Samuel Boyd Jr., I am happy to report that on this Memorial Day in 2011 when Art Corley visits Samuel's graveside, the headstone will read 101st ABN Div. That was the unit patch that was on his sleeve when he was killed as result of hostile action on June 6th, 1968, and so now after resting silently for more than 42 years the error has been corrected.

Samuel's story probably has never been told and I can only speculate at much of it with the limited information we were able to gather, along with what Art can recall through personal conversations prior to Samuel's death. He was born on July 28th, 1944, in Newark, NJ. He attended Newark Vocational High School and we are not sure whether or not if he graduated. The address he gave as his home of record no longer exists, nor does the street. After much searching and placement of articles in the local newspapers, no family members came forward.

Samuel was drafted into the US Army on Nov 8th, 1967. If you want to do some research, or you have any memory of that time, much of Newark was in flames and what they called race riots were the order of the day in many northern cities of our country. With all this as a backdrop for this young man's beginnings, and his prospect for a future, he finds himself in the US Army and on his way to Vietnam with minimal training and less desire on May 1st 1968. Thirty-five days later he was dead. He, and about 25 other guys like him were the replacements for the casualties my platoon had taken on May 1st. From what I can piece together, Samuel came into country on the 1st of May and got to the unit, A Troop, 2/17th Cav on May 13th. He was killed on June 6th, 1968. The hell of it is that he was in my platoon for 17 days before I was medevaced out on May 30th. I don't have any recollection of him; his name, his face, his physical features, nothing. And, there were others I'm sure who came and went the same way. In a way, Samuel is my Unknown Soldier who I have finally come to know by name.

I want to thank brother Art Corley. I can't recall who found who a few months ago, but from here on out, we found each other. Also, I realize I'm still putting humpty dumpty back together.

One Day Set Aside for those who Gave it All

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.



The name of John McCrae (1872-1918) may seem out of place in the distinguished company of World War I poets, but he is remembered for what is probably the single best-known and popular poem from the war, "In Flanders Fields." He was a Canadian physician and fought on the Western Front in 1914, but was then transferred to the medical corps and assigned to a hospital in France. He died of pneumonia while on active duty in 1918. His volume of poetry, In Flanders Fields and Other Poems, was published in 1919.



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Thank you farmers

These photos were taken about a week ago in southwestern MN. The Fall Harvest goes non-stop until all is done. Thank you all, good farmers of America, and around the world.....and to the ingenuity that invented the machinery to release the rest us non farmers to do our parts to contribute to society. I could not swing a hammer ...all day and grow enough to eat at the same time. We owe much to those who do the planting and harvesting.

This Has Been Along Time Coming

From a email I posted 5/1/2010

Today is the 35th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, and there may even be a few editorial written today, saying we should have fought on to some mythical victory, or some will say we should have never gone. As we all know, should have, and could have, isn't what happened, and for all of us who were around at the time, and made the choices we made. We are left to live with those choices.

So after all these years, rather than debating either side of should have, could have, I'd like to briefly describe my April 30th of 35 years ago. The impact of those images of Saigon falling will never leave me.

35 years ago today I was living and working in Lincoln Nebraska. I had bought a old house the year before; I was working as an apprentice carpenter; I thought I had worked my way through all my inter-conflicts with my time in Vietnam seven years earlier, and life was good. Then I came home to my old two story frame house in need of many repairs, after work on April 30, 1975, and turned on the TV, got a beer out of the frig, and sat down to see what had happen that day on the news. Saigon was falling right in front of me. For along time I wanted the war to end, but never gave consideration as to how it would look. Well, seeing those images on television that day, it didn't take long to realize, my inter-conflicts were still present and accounted for.

There I was, forced to face a truth which I had avoided from the time I came home in 1968 to that moment. “It was all for nothing.” To give your all in a six minute wrestling match, or forty eight minutes of a high school football game, and loose. Well, everybody lives to play another day. In war, when it's all over after giving it your all, there are some who don't live to fight another day, win or loose. It was overwhelming sitting there trying to comprehend the amount of death and destruction, some of which I caused, as if I were tallying up the final score. Then the tears came that I had been holding back for the previous eight years. The events of that day made for a long night, but by morning, I had everything stuffed back down as all good soldiers do for god and country, and went to work in the morning. It was another ten years before I said ouch, thus beginning my journey home, finally.

Every soldier, of every war, win or loose, lives with the remnants of their wars. It's a downside that isn't given equal measure as countries give in it's lives lost, and dollars and cents spent. Maybe someday. Then we just might pick our wars differently

There is a connection

Looking for a cause?

There is a connection from this, " my way or the highway, or " no way," of some our politicians behavior, to this bullying of, and by our children. Bullying is taught or conditioned into children out of fear, as much as they are taught basic manners. There are 300 hundred million people in this country, who are each unique. To govern means compromise and acceptance. Our children need to hear and see it practiced

">http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=592846987806

Be Guided by the truth

To quote Delbert McClinton, “If you can't lie no better than that, you better go ahead and tell the truth.” People have fought and died to defend the Constitution which in part protects freedom of speech, and each of us have an obligation to all those who have paid the price for that freedom, to speak the truth, especially when it relates to facts about our governance. Here is a link to give one and all an idea how far off course our country has veered. Agree or disagree, but make sure you are guided by the facts. Here are some examples of the truth be damn. We have to do better, or we'll all be damn
http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=obama&sp-a=00062d45-sp00000000&sp-advanced=1&sp-p=all&sp-w-control=1&sp-w=alike&sp-date-range=-1&sp-x=any&sp-c=100&sp-m=1&sp-s=0&x=47&y=13