Vietnam Veterans Memorial Totals 58,267 Names, Including 33,103 18-Year Olds

honoring those who have served

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – In recognition of Memorial Day, Space Coast Daily remembers the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve the freedoms, safety and liberties of Americans throughout our country and around the world.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a 2-acre national memorial in Washington, DC. It honors U.S. service members of the U.S. armed forces who fought in the Vietnam War, service members who died in service in Vietnam/South East Asia, and those service members who were unaccounted for (Missing In Action) during the War.

The memorial currently consists of three separate parts: the Three Servicemen Memorial, the Vietnam Women’s Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, which is the best-known part of the memorial.

The memorial is maintained by the U.S. National Park Service, and receives around 3 million visitors each year.

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.

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.

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

• 8,283 were just 19 years old.

• The largest age group, 33,103 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 Vietnam.

• 31 sets of brothers are on the Wall.

• 31 sets of parents lost two of their sons.

• 54 soldiers attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia.

• 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 an d 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.

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