History many don’t know

RBC I There are 58,267 names now listed on the polished black wall of the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., including those added in 2010.
The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date. Within each date the names are alphabetized. It is hard to believe it has been 36 years since the last casualties.
The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth, Mass., 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.
Thirty-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-six of the names on the wall were just 22 years old or younger. 8,283 were just 19 years old. The largest group of names — 33,103 — were 18 years old. Twelve soldiers on the wall were 17, five were 16 years old and one soldier, PFC Dan Bullock, was just 15-years-old.
Nine hundred ninety-seven soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam.
One thousand four hundred forty-eight soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam.
Thirty-one sets of brothers are on the wall.
Thirty-one sets of parents lost two of their sons.
Fifty-four soldiers attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia.
Eight women’s names are on the wall. They died nursing the wounded.
Two hundred forty-four 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 six 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 led some of the scrappiest high school football and basketball teams that the 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 three returned home.
The Buddies of Midvale — LeRoy Tafoya, Jimmy Martinez and Tom Gonzales were all boyhood friends and lived on three consecutive streets in Midvale, Utah, 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. Tafoya was killed on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the fourth anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Martinez died less than 24 hours later on Thanksgiving Day. Tom was shot assaulting the enemy on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.
The most casualty deaths for a single day was on Jan. 31, 1968 — 245 deaths.
The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 — 2,415 casualties were recorded.
For most Americans who read this they will only see the numbers that the Vietnam War created. To those of us who survived the war, and to the families of those who did not, we see the faces, we feel the pain that these numbers created. We are, until we, too, pass away, haunted by these numbers, because they were our friends, fathers, husbands, wives, sons, brothers and daughters. There are no noble wars, just noble warriors.
Submitted By Tom Kilduff
Special to the Herald Times