Vietnam Touched Many Lives
- 9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the official Vietnam era from August 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975.
- 2,709,918 Americans served in uniform in Vietnam .
- Vietnam veterans represented 9.7% of their generation.
The state with the most deaths was California with 5,573 killed. The next four were New York with 4,121; Texas 3,415; Pennsylvania 3,144 and Illinois 2,934. And the total number of 19, 20 and 21 year old casualties totaled over 32,000.
| Age at Time of Death | Recorded Casualties |
| 17 | 12 |
| 18 | 3,103 |
| 19 | 8,283 |
| 20 | 14,095 |
| 21 | 9,705 |
| 22 | 4,798 |
| 23 | 3,495 |
| 24 | 2,650 |
| 25 | 2,018 |
| 26 | 1,414 |
| 27 | 917 |
| 28 | 768 |
| 29 | 710 |
| 30-39 | 4,927 |
| 40-49 | 1,156 |
| 50-59 | 121 |
| 60-62 | 4 |
| Unknown Age or Not Reported | 17 |
| Totals | 58,193 |
The pictures posted below will bring back many memories of that time in our lives when our country was divided. So many came home to angry people who bombarded them with insults. Many of our returning veterans still suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
A South Vietnamese soldier holds a cocked pistol as he questions two suspected Viet Cong guerrillas captured in a weed-filled marsh in the southern delta region late in August 1962. The prisoners were searched, bound and questioned before being marched off to join other detainees. AP Photo/Horst Faas
A U.S. crewman runs from a crashed CH-21 Shawnee troop helicopter near the village of Ca Mau in the southern tip of South Vietnam , Dec. 11, 1962. Two helicopters crashed without serious injuries during a government raid on the Viet Cong-infiltrated area. Both helicopters were destroyed to keep them out of enemy hands. AP Photo/Horst Faas
Helmeted U.S. Helicopter Crewchief, holding carbine, watches ground movements of Vietnamese troops from above during a strike against Viet Cong Guerrillas in the Mekong Delta Area, January 2, 1963. The communist Viet Cong claimed victory in the continuing struggle in Vietnam after they shot down five U.S. helicopters. An American officer was killed and three other American servicemen were injured in the action. AP Photo/Horst Faas
Caskets containing the bodies of seven American helicopter crewmen killed in a crash on January 11, 1963 were loaded aboard a plane on Monday, Jan. 14 for shipment home. The crewmen were on board a H21 helicopter that crashed near a hut on an Island in the middle of one of the branches of the Mekong River, about 55 miles Southwest of Saigon. AP Photo/Malcolm Browne
Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk, burns himself to death on a Saigon street on June 11, 1963, to protest alleged persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government. AP Photo/Malcolm Browne
Flying at dawn, just over the jungle foliage, U.S. C-123 aircraft spray concentrated defoliant (Agent Orange) along power lines running between Saigon and Dalat in South Vietnam , early in August 1963. The planes were flying about 130 miles per hour over steep, hilly terrain, much of it believed infiltrated by the Viet Cong. AP Photo/Horst Faas
A South Vietnamese Marine, severely wounded in a Viet Cong ambush, is comforted by a comrade in a sugar cane field at Duc Hoa, about 12 miles from Saigon, Aug. 5, 1963. A platoon of 30 Vietnamese Marines was searching for communist guerrillas when a long burst of automatic fire killed one Marine and wounded four others. AP Photo/Horst Faas
A father holds the body of his child as South Vietnamese Army Rangers look down from their armored vehicle March 19, 1964. The child was killed as government forces pursued guerrillas into a village near the Cambodian border AP Photo/Horst Faas
General William Westmoreland talks with troops of first battalion, 16th regiment of 2nd brigade of U.S. First Division at their positions near Bien Hoa in Vietnam, 1965 AP Photo/Horst Faas
The sun breaks through the dense jungle foliage around the embattled town of Binh Gia , 40 miles east of Saigon, in early January 1965, as South Vietnamese troops, joined by U.S. advisors, rest after a cold, damp and tense night of waiting in an ambush position for a Viet Cong attack that didn't come. One hour later, as the possibility of an overnight attack by the Viet Cong diasappeared, the troops moved out for another long, hot day hunting the elusive communist guerrillas in the jungles. AP Photo/Horst Faas
Hovering U.S. Army helicopters pour machine gun fire into a tree line to cover the advance of South Vietnamese ground troops in an attack on a Viet Cong camp 18 miles north of Tay Ninh, northwest of Saigon near the Cambodian border, in Vietnam in March of 1965. AP Photo/Horst Faas
Injured Vietnamese receive aid as they lie on the street after a bomb explosion outside the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, Vietnam, March 30, 1965. Smoke rises from wreckage in the background. At least two Americans and several Vietnamese were killed in the bombing AP Photo/Horst Faas
Capt. Donald R. Brown of Annapolis, Md., advisor to the 2nd Battalion of the 46th Vietnamese regiment, dashes from his helicopter to the cover of a rice paddy dike during an attack on Viet Cong in an area 15 miles west of Saigon on April 4, 1965 during the Vietnam War. Brown's counterpart, Capt. Di, commander of the unit, rushes away in background with his radioman. The Vietnamese suffered 12 casualties before the field was taken. AP Photo/Horst Faas
U.S. soldiers are on the search for Viet Cong hideouts in a swampy jungle creek bed, June 6, 1965, at Chutes de Trian, some 40 miles northeast of Saigon, South Vietnam AP Photo/Horst Faas
The strain of battle for Dong Xoai is shown on the face of U.S. Army Sgt. Philip Fink, an advisor to the 52nd Vietnamese Ranger battalion, shown June 12, 1965. The unit bore the brunt of recapturing the jungle outpost from the Viet Cong AP Photo/Steve Stibbens
An unidentified U.S. Army soldier wears a hand lettered "War Is Hell" slogan on his helmet, in Vietnam on June 18, 1965 AP Photo/Horst Faas
South Vietnamese supply trucks take a detour around a destroyed bridge en route to Pleiku on Route 19, July 18, 1965. The original bridge, and a temporary bridge placed on top of it, were both destroyed by the Viet Cong AP Photo/Eddie Adams
Wounded marines lie about the floor of a H34 helicopter, August 19, 1965 as they were evacuated from the battle area on Van Tuong peninsula AP Photo/Eddie Adams
The Associated Press photographer Huynh Thanh My covers a Vietnamese battalion pinned down in a Mekong Delta rice paddy about a month before he was killed in combat on Oct. 10, 1965 AP Photo/Eddie Adams
Elements of the U.S. First Cavalry Air Mobile division in a landing craft approach the beach at Qui Nhon, 260 miles northeast of Saigon, Vietnam, in Sept. 1965. Advance units of 20,000 new troops are being launched for a strike on the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War AP Photo/Eddie Adams
