As of July 2019, the Army had 19,820 11B Infantryman on active duty. In winter this included wearing underwear, long johns, woolen pants and shirt, one or two heavy sweaters, woolen socks, an overcoat, a rain poncho, a woolen cap, a helmet and a liner, gloves, boots, and galoshes. 2) by my research, medics suffered 93% casualties with about 33% deaths. It goes without saying that battle could claim a soldier's life and soldiers enlisted anywhere from 10 to 25 years, depending on their rank. Aboard ship, the troops, most of whom had never been on a ship before, endured crowded conditions, jammed mess halls with waiting lines of up to an hour, seasickness, and boredom. Again it fell to the squad leaders to decide when enough hazing had been conducted by the veterans of combat on the new arrivals. Joe Medicine Crow, the last war chief of the Crow Tribe of Montana is profiled in The War, a film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Assigned to HHC 1/77 Armor, 1st, BDE 5th Inf. He encountered the open fields and farmlands of France, the dense woods of the Ardennes, the mountainous terrain in Italy, Les Voges, and Alsace, in all weather conditions. I was a point man, M60 Gunner and squad leader. The British lost 704,208 dead in the Great War, and if they were to form up in three ranks and march at the standard British army speed of 120 thirty-inch paces to the minute, they would pass in one day, fifteen hours and seven minutes. During mobilization in the military, it is not uncommon to have skills associated with landmine warfare, anti-armor techniques, urban terrain, squad tactical training, as well as the operation of M203 grenade launchers. In his work The 1865 Customs of Service for Non-Commissioned Officers and Soldiers, August V. Kautz writes that a soldier "should learn to wait: a soldier's life is made up in waiting for the critical moments.". We were all in our Bunkers, and at the ready with our weapons. Theres 58,276. The Infantry makes up approximately 15% of the Armys total force. Needless too say I depended on Sgt. Shaving could be accomplished in the field during lulls in the fighting, often with water heated inside a helmet, using a camp stove or the heat canister from a rations pack as the heating source. The job title is the epitome of the U.S. Army as you are the primary means of attack and defense on land for the military. I couldnt disagree. In France, the bars were as hard as the frozen soil. The job training for 11B requires 14 weeks of One Station Unit Training (OSUT) which is a combination of time spent in the classroom and in the field. My good friend who was a RTO was killed. RIght there and the NVA we were usually up against knew this. So I guess i lasted longer than I was supposed to. The other group of aeromedical evacuation were divisional, i.e. The US Army Combat Lifesaver Course is an official medical training course conducted by the US Army. (and yes, you cant ask them, so it would have to be derived from the AA-reports and survivors). During the Second World War in all theaters, it was the infantry which bore the brunt of combat, be it ground units of the US Army or the Marines. If a battle ensued, a triumphant army would lose 5% of its men but a defeated army would usually lose around 15% of its force. Required fields are marked *. During the winter sleeping bags were issued. Back in 1965, I was a door gunner on Medevac recovery operations. We can all hold our heads high and be proud of our service. Infantrymen must know how to operate and maintain communications equipment including radio. three, he believes he is doing what his country wants him to dojust like you So you better damn well treat him with the compassion you want for you!! I wasnt aware that they kept life expectancy statistics. Saw from mostly safe distance almost all the weapons systems that where there used. Both served in A 2/18 1st Infantry Division. Many were killed or wounded ! Sanitation facilities were a box filled with sand in each car. The soldier spent a majority of his time in camp drilling, with . Two points: 1) at least in Army units, Medevacs (dust offs) flew unarmed aircraft. Some were necessary as a part of simply releasing the tension built up through combat and seeing friends wounded or killed, but it was up to the sergeants to establish what went too far. The lives of these soldiers are always at risk. There are a number of standards and qualifications you need to meet to become MOS 11B, especially since the Army expanded its OSUT training in 2019. Rest and recovery could be at the level of any of the units of command, or as little as the squad level. As I made it back to the road I remember seeing the I was a helicopter pilot Remember he wanted to reenlist for one more year in Vietnam. During training, you will spend close to a week on vehicle platform training. Quickly learned to control rate of fire. Correct. They did not carry weapons. While all rifle companies had assigned medics, they were not always in the company of squads on patrol or deployed in forwarding positions. Really no mention of the regular rifleman. It featured a reduced recoil, allowing an infantryman to more readily keep it on line with the target when firing multiple shots, and offered a simple range adjustment. As a result, Army Infantrymen 11B are trained to conduct mobilization in a variety of settings on land. Since the shower and clothing issue often took place in the dead of winter and outdoors, it was an invigorating experience, but a not very frequent one. As a member of a fire team, you can expect to test your skills handling day and night shooting with several Army stables including M4 rifles, M230 machine guns, and M249 automatic weapons. Five RTOs. A Co, 1/5 Cav, 1 Cav Division. It was an HONOR and a privilege to serve with these brave men for my 11 month tour. I was sitting on the ground one day trying to dry out my gear and better configure my ruck when my squad leader came walking over to me and said, Gow, youve got the radio. As he turned and walked away! In the case of a night attack, the men could not exit the bags quickly, and most infantrymen quit sleeping in them, preferring to stay on top of the bag and cover themselves with their overcoat or blanket. Great information. Photography by James Salzano. 9 (September 1944) The American Soldier (1949), vol. I applaud your courage as I know an RTOs job is essential, difficult (carrying the weight of his radio transmitter, his rifle, his ammo, and his rucksack), and dangerous as the enemy surely wanted to knock out any communications for support. The ration packs also included tablets for the purification of water they encountered in the field from streams, ponds, and even wells, since it was unknown if the Germans had taken any steps to contaminate wells as they withdrew. S/F, There were no door gunners on dustoffs. To the men, it appeared they were fighting for useless hills. But I made it back in one piece. An American infantryman inspects the body of a dead German in July 1944, near St. By February 1944 the US Army discontinued purchasing the Thompson, after approximately 1.5 million units had been obtained by the Army and Marine Corps. As it was, less than 40 did not need evacuation. Some embarkation ports were near major military installations, such as Norfolk, Virginia. As mentioned, who kept track of that in the first place? That same day, I along with 3/4 others was transported to Long Bhin Post. I am one lucky SOB. Welcome home brothers and sisters. After consolidating the division and its equipment infantrymen were moved to the front, which by December 1944 was nearing the Siegfried Line, defensive fortifications protecting Germany from invasion from the west. Joe Medicine Crow escaped the law of . One result of combat is dealing with prisoners of war, with Army Infantrymen being the first means to process POWs. This meant that rations in the field were often frozen, as was the water in the canteens carried by the men, adding another eight pounds to their load, but entirely useless. We were expecting, an attack. The minimum education needed to become a U.S. Army Infantryman (11B) is a high school diploma or GED. We killed a lot of the enemy but we took few serious casualties. If you have other information let me know. is sharing facts, thats truly good, keep up writing. There is also training provided on advanced land navigation (day and night) as well as opportunities for leadership positions that are extremely beneficial both in the Army, and with future civilian opportunities. Welcome home!! Your email address will not be published. I served in A Company 3/22 of the 3rd Brigade 4th Infantry 12/66, then Hq Co 2/12 of the 3rd Brigade 25th Inf until the night of the TET offensive end of January 1968 and returned home July 18 1968. So was the increasing use of forward-deployed ambulances, and forward treatment stations, surgeries, and evacuation hospitals. When the reserves moved up the troops which had been in combat were withdrawn, and what luxuries the Army could offer were enjoyed. my left and saw this rice paddie farmer and his ox and I was trying to motion him to get down he just looks at me and starts Had multiple Ks and Ws. Soldier,this is a wardont forget that, and anytime we are in a fight we will be toughest SOBs in the fight!! I was over there twice serving as a Hospital Corpsman with a marine unit. The rifle was accessorized to become a grenade launcher, firing the Mk 7 grenade with the addition of a modified sight. I was an Artillery Forward Observer with the Infantry. In your rucksack . I never understood why they didnt put M60s on Medevacs (once the VC shot them down) but then, we now know they never intended to win that war in the first place. Wow I was 31.8 Gun shot Carried model 1200 Winchester shot gun WIA May 68 Article was great. 1st Platoon, C Company, 2nd Battalion 327th Infantry. Point was the safest place to be,they knew to wait for key elements, RTO, Medica, M60 Gunners. Look at the armament options in this article---those are all LRPF guns from .50cal to 30mm to 105-120mm cannon---and no "area saturation," "area destruction," and "mass fire" that China and Russia have. I flew Dustoff and our unit did not have M60s for protection, nor did any other Dustoff unit that Im aware of. The average life expectancy of a front-line soldier in eastern Ukraine is four hours, a Marine said. As we were, steadily building up, our area for protection. It began just as, it was getting dark. My bud, Price took over as RTO. Infantrymen learned to survive without any creature comforts for the simple reason that anything that they kept they had to carry. Regardless, several civilian jobs are comparable such as: Soldiers should consider enrolling in the Army PaYS program following retirement. I have a fried Who is killed in Vietnam six months before I got there cause of death was other how would I find out since his parents are long gone, Do a search for his name n Coffeltdatabase.org, Sir, would you mind me translating this into Spanish and getting it posted in our blog? See you in the next life!!!!! If it was your day to get hit or die, it happened. I think what is missing is the fact that the life expectancy of those firing at us was much shorter than those that they were firing at. Their experience as front-line combat infantry was invaluable in training new recruits in what they could expect when it became their turn at the front. I never saw any correlation as to what MOS a soldier was and their survival rate. Related Article: Army Height And Weight Standards. I saw aircraft loaded with troops explode in mid-air. It was only in the direst of circumstances that an entire division was engaged in combat simultaneously, usually several units were held in reserve. The special military bonus is reserved for particular in-demand, or highly-dangerous positions. 2 tour Nam veteran, Les Scates, U.S. Army (Ret.) 15 May he was killed by friendly fire, and a host of us were WIA, myself included. Really? BUT WE MUST ALSO BE COGNIZANT OF OUR REQUIREMENT TO BE COMPASSIONATE HUMAN BEINGS. The infantrymen of World War 2 slogged across Europe from the spring of 1944 through the early spring of 1945. An infantryman carried on his back and in equipment bags and pockets everything he needed to survive in the field during a patrol or while en route to an ordered destination. The 1809 Battle of Landshut in Bavaria, Germany resulted in a victory for Napoleon Bonaparte. As always during the war, the combat infantryman knew little of the overall situation and did as he was told ignorant for the most part of the reason why. The Army currently lists AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, Kraft Foods Global, Sears Holdings Corporation, Time Customer Service, and Walgreens as partners of PaYS and great employers for Army Infantryman post-service. Ed, I was in a Grunt Platoon in Vietnam 70-71. Ernest, Im glad that your first tour with the VN airborne was rewarding. Alsace had for more than a century been a region disputed between the French and the Germans, and many of the residents there were more supportive of the latter than the former. Thank You for your courageous service as an RTO with the legendary Hawk Recon Platoon. We ambushed and got ambushed, firebase got attacked who carried what or did what had no bearing. I was one of the many others I rode river boats in the Mekong Jan 68 to 69. I spent my year in Vietnam with the 1/22nd infantry part of the 4th division. The TOTAL number of CIB and CMB awarded would give you the answer !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know this is a standard cliche, but it is so true, All gave some. U.S. Army Infantryman overwhelming have positive things to say about the military career choice. Each battalion contained a heavy weapons company with machine guns and mortars, and three rifle companies of infantrymen. The 276th was not going into combat as a division, but as a task force, meaning that it was used to plug gaps in the line in response to fluid conditions during the German attack in Belgium. Just published my book The Last Goodbye by John Fratangelo, available on line on Barnes and Noble and Amazon Prime Books, Getting great reviews. Commanders like him were few and far between many were afraid of their own shadow and were only there to get their ticket punched. He used. The combat infantryman, and for the most part their immediate superiors at the front, had little information about the overall situation of the war. What was the average life expectancy of a soldier in ww2? I was an Infantry Scout Dog handler. I was a medic on one for two yrs and the only weapon I was issue was a six-shot .38. Photo above is of Stanley Kober with RTO, John Scheur. Cameron Rogers from 1st Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, plots points on a map during the fire . Ambushed on October 4th,1967. A radio operator carried the normal load for a rifleman, as well as a radio which weighed nearly forty pounds. No trees or anything on the ground. The Americans who served in the Army in Europe were recruited and trained at various bases and camps in the United States before being sent to points of embarkation near major East Coast ports for transport to Europe. Usually, these transfers led to the men being ordered to remove the insignia identifying their division from their uniforms, to deny the information to the Germans. The one that should be there is the combat medic. Camp Standish was both a staging area for embarking troops and a prisoner of war camp. It is still an impressive statistic but utterly meaningless. Additionally, you will learn to handle a large volume of weapons, military vehicles, as well as Prisoners of War (POWs). Thats why I never understand people talking about survivors guilt it should have been me, why him? etc. When in close proximity to the enemy smoking at night was forbidden, as were cooking fires or open flames. Instead, they were soon engulfed in the biggest battle of US Army history. Occasionally the men were transferred piecemeal. Officers and sergeants frequently carried the M1 carbine, which used the same ammunition as the M1 rifle but was lighter and easier to handle in the field. I got shot on a mission with 45 days left. (tirotactico.net). Les Scates U.S. Army (Ret.) We did interdictions, blocks and other fun things on the river. The needs of the Army will dictate which MOS youre assigned. I quit trying to make sense of all the numbers that have been generated about Vietnam. The Bn & Company I was assigned to, was on the last row of Bldgs. While the platoon was commanded by a commissioned officer, usually a Second Lieutenant, the squad was led by a non-commissioned officer, usually, a Staff Sergeant serving as squad leader, assisted by a corporal. I remember hearing somewhere about an RTO who wasnt getting the info out correctly and the Lieutenant (Kennedy) grabbed the mic and said My RTO Is Foxtrot Uniform. The average infantryman in Vietnam saw about 240 days of combat in one year thanks to the mobility of the helicopter. For example, life expectancy of Veterans at age 25 population, thus 3.6 and 0.5 life-years smaller income differentials for male and female Veterans, respectively, shown in Tables 17 and 18. Thank You Roger!!! Comments were more interesting than the article it self. Great reading. Foxholes were dug by individuals, with each man responsible for his own hole, or in the case of weapons teams, dug together for joint occupancy. The key may be the word initial since we became more savvy with successive combats and had improved survivability. In that time 4 us kia and 4 wounded. But, once the enemy lays down his weapon, I want YOU TO REMEMBER THREE THINGS: 1, HE IS A SOLDIER, JUST LIKE YOU.2, HE IS AWAY FROM HOME And family, just like you. Anyway I was wondering about the RTOs in a grunt platoon, was that their MOS or were they 11B that carried a PRC ? On Sun, Mar 8, 2020 at 4:00 PM CherriesWriter Vietnam War website wrote: > pdoggbiker posted: A friend recently sent me the link to an article > claiming that the life expectancy of a radio operator in the Vietnam War > was only 5 seconds. Survival led them to shed those items which were not essential to their remaining alive. Do the math. Cruz quite a lot. Like you, I carried a PRC-25 for about 5 months and never got hit. Others were encampments such as Camp Myles Standish, outside of Boston, Massachusetts. I also was 2/327 B company. Gotta say I think you hit it on the nose. Made by the Hershey Company, the chocolate was laced with paraffin, which helped keep it from melting in the tropical heat. TONY DISAGREED> hE SAID TAKE A 19 YEAR OLD, WHO HAS JUST TAKEN TWO ROUNDS TO HIS BODY, And IS watching his best friend die from multiple, bleeding wounds he wont give a shit about the Geneva Convention. Your email address will not be published. The Browning Automatic Rifle, of which each infantry rifle squad had one (and which was incidentally a favored weapon of Clyde Barrow of Bonnie and Clyde fame) was also a .30 caliber weapon. EACH OF US CARRIES OUR OWN MEMORIES AND THEY RUN THE GAMUT. The most common trade items were cigarettes and chocolate, both of which Americans were amply supplied with, and the French civilians were not. I saw killed and wounded everywhere in our combat operations. Im laying behind a rice paddie dike.I put my whole body as far down in the muck while the bullets were over my head. Squad leaders were given limited objectives, leaving them to speculate for the most part on aspects of an operation outside of those in which they and their men were participating. All Rights Reserved. Veterans of the 289th Infantry Regiment on the road to St. Vith during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. Good article. The Luftwaffe was still a potent threat during the summer of 1944 as the Allies pushed across France. Although a partially discharged clip could be ejected from the rifle it was common practice not to do so. Vehicles of the US First Infantry division stalled on a Belgian road in late 1944. His clothing alone weighed more than twenty pounds. Some of my men didnt. Thus they were deployed without artillery of their own. In the 1st Cav medics were right behind the rto making them a very easy find also. Altogether his burden was over eighty pounds. The troops found that in southern France the French were friendly and welcoming, crowding around the train when it stopped in villages and towns, trading wine and bread for chocolate and cigarettes. Very memorable comments. For his actions, he was awarded the Congressional Medal if Honor. It was just part of the job. Both served in A 2/18 1st Infantry Division. The infantryman ate, slept, marched, fought, and died with his squad. Your Dad and I had the same job. I was lucky too but VN never left me. Never knew they had life expectancy stats. I packed my own radio and got a Thank you from his Mom. aND, mAY GOD BLESS AMERICA!!! The article was interesting. Now, there are additional weapon qualifications including handling M4 rifles, M240 machine guns, and M249 squad automatic weapons. I lost my cherry very early. That means you lose five RTOs in 5 seconds. Now, the wisdom of this soldier tough but humanly compassionate warrior ethos can be assessed through the 2d Bn recordNO complaints about mistreatment of prisonerswhile achieving the most combat SUCCESSES IN THE BRIGADE. We used to provide cover for these guys. Since U.S. Army Infantrymen are the primary land defense for the branch of the military they regularly participate in shooting drills. Two of my classmates were killed within 2 weeks incountry and three wounded I know of. Sure but so was everyone else who went 12 months without getting killed or wounded. A sled laden with ammunition is dragged by US infantrymen towards the fighting during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. Tony told me that either he or I would greet all incoming troops and we did- and here is the speech we gave to them. *The U.S. Army recently expanded upon its Infantry Training in 2019 to introduce more combative courses, lifesaver courses, day and night land navigation, and different weapons qualifications. Thank God I made it. The loading and unloading of supplies at the front was performed by infantry units, as was the moving it forward to the men engaged at the front lines. Staying alive was kinda of important. Thats what I figured but didnt know for sure. Those determined to be too severely wounded to continue their recovery in theater were sent to either England or the United States on hospital ships, and then routed to recovery hospitals on specially equipped hospital trains. I look over to Thats why they called us GRUNTS ! Different type units, different locations, different opinions on dangers. For all the men given a brief respite from the fighting, the possibility of the period being abruptly cut short was ever-present, as activities at the front demanded their immediate return to the battle line. It was up to the squad leaders to keep them fighting in brutal weather, without asking why. As usual, the average infantryman had little knowledge of the overall situation and why such transfers were necessary. He was killed in an ambush along with three others. And us the living that served, who suffer from PTSD ,that figure or percent-aged would be about the greatest of all. I was stationed on 2 FSBs (8 & 175mm guns) west of Tay Ninh on the Cambodian boarder in the Ho Chi Minh trail and was wounded but nothing as bad as he was. Boot camp for an Army Infantryman consists of two sections: Basic Combat Training (BCT) and Advanced Individual Training. They endured the monotonous rations, lack of hygiene, bombardment by the enemy, accidental bombardment by their own artillery, constant tension, and the constant loss of friends because they were there to protect themselves and their fellow squad members, finish the job and go home. I was a REMF but Ive heard of 05Cs that were stuck out in the boonies on a firebase. Appx: 6 months in, all of the 543d TC joined forces with the 572d TC. Once they were on the continent in 1944, other than the initial days of the Battle of the Bulge, there were few withdrawals in the face of the enemy. In some conditions, infantrymen would change their socks at any opportunity. Digging in was an exercise which added to sore backs blistered hands as the entrenching tool chipped away frozen ground. Infantrymen are universal and fearless soldiers who must be ready for any operation, which means that they can be sent to a hot spot at any time. I was to have that experience two more times before it was over. How they got there depended on the condition of the roads and railroads between their consolidation point and where they were needed. Infantry OSUT is 22 weeks. Food: Allowance for the on-base dining hall and access to tax-free department and grocery stores. This was both damaging to morale and weakened the reliability of the unit, and was avoided as much as possible, but became necessary during the rush to contain the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes in 1944. THE MAN I INHERITED THE GUN FROM WASNT SO LUCKY. All that other stuff about seconds and minutes were story tellers, embellishing things to impress some listeners back home. The infantry rotated troops to and out of the front, either as it receded while the Germans withdrew to new defensive positions or as replacement troops took over, giving the squads an opportunity to rest, shower, obtain fresh clothing and recover from combat. We flew north, then made a stop, in Cam Rahn Bay. Those who arrived during actual combat received a warmer welcome than those arriving while the squad was resting. They also had a 12 gauge, and a M 79 grenade launcher and M 16. Even when out of combat their comforts were few. I was one of the lucky ones I came home without a physical scratch. It was a lull before the storm, since more and more infantrymen were needed at the front. US Army. During some periods of intense combat more than a month could go by without clean clothes or a shower. The Americans put about twenty men in each car when they moved by train, since with their full loads of equipment they could not fit in anymore, but conditions were still crowded. Correctable vision must be 20/20 in one eye, and 20/100 in the other eye. An infantry platoon commander in combat had an average of 6 weeks life. I met a Marine a few years ago who was stationed North of Da Nang. National Archives. I personally believe and agree with previous posts that when its your time, not much you can do. Re: Helicopter Crews (Medevac & Dustoff): To my knowledge, only the 1st Cav Medevac had M60s for protection. RTO, John Scheur. I credit my longetivity to great training at Ft Benning. You can follow the pay table below to figure out what you can expect to make based on U.S. Army rank for Infantryman MOS 11B: The U.S. Army has several benefits included with a monthly salary: It is also worth noting that you could earn up to $41,000 in cash bonuses for enlisting under certain Military Occupational Specialties. Well he didnt make it. You have to earn it, so hard work during your education and training is extremely important. Both served in A 2/18 1st Infantry Division For some reason, the written word of this article was somehow deleted and lost. The incredibly important role in the U.S. Army is responsible for defending the country through real-life combat. They served in squads, led by a junior officer and experienced sergeants, slogged through and slept in mud and snow, maintaining contact with the enemy, taking and holding ground. When elements of the 276th Infantry Division were moved from their consolidation camp to the front it took a journey of four days, in freezing conditions, with many unplanned stops due to conditions on the railroad and at the front.
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