U.S. CASUALTIES BY UNITS

[frisco-kid]

Source: National Archives and Records Administration
Unit .......................Nickname ...............KIA...............Comment

1st Cavalry Division* First Team *5,464

25th Infantry Division *Tropic Lightning *4,561

101st Airborne Division *Screaming Eagles* 4,022

1st Infantry Division *Big Red One* 3,151

Various Individual Units -------------- 2,872 *See Note 1 below

9th Infantry Division *Old Reliables* 2,629

4th Infantry Division *Ivy Division* 2,541

173rd Airborne Brigade (Separate) *Sky Soldiers* 1,758

1st Aviation Brigade ---------------- 1,706

196th Light Infantry Brigade ------ 1,188

11th Light Infantry Brigade -------- 1,109

Military Assistance Command Vietnam *MACV* 1,017 --Advisors to ARVN

198th Light Infantry Brigade -------- 987

United States Army Vietnam *USARV *847---- Headquarters - includes advisors

5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) *Green Berets*-- 834

23rd Infantry Division *Americal* 809--- non-brigade units

199th Light Infantry Brigade *Redcatchers* 757

11th Armored Cavalry Regiment* Blackhorse* 729

1st Logistical Command -------------- 598

5th Infantry Division (Mechanized) *Red Diamond *530---- 1st Brigade only

I Field Force Vietnam *IFFV*--------- 353

82d Airborne Division *All American* 228------ 3rd Brigade only

1st Signal Brigade --------------------- 193

II Field Force Vietnam *IIFFV*-------- 80

Engineer Command -------------------- 64

Unit unknown ---------------------------- 6



Note 1: This group is comprised of the following individual units with no further breakdown

17th Field Hospital (An Khe)
22nd Surgical Hospital (Phu Bai)
71st Evacuation Hospital (Pleiku)
91st Evacuation Hospital (Tuy Hoa)
95th Field Hospital (Qui Nhon)
3rd Field Hospital (III Corps)
7th Surgical Hospital (III Corps)
45th Surgical Hospital (III Corps)
93rd Evacuation Hospital (III Corps)
80th Engineer Group
121st Assault Helicopter Company
18th Military Police Brigade
89th Military Police Brigade
8th Transportation Group
48th Transportation Group
11th Aviation Group
12th Aviation Group
23rd Artillery Group
108th Artillery Group
35th Engineer Group
45th Engineer Group
34th General Support Group
506th Field Depot

[82Rigger]

Any idea which unit took highest percentage (per unit strength) of KIAs?

At a glance it looks like maybe the 173rd.

[frisco-kid]

That's probably true, Steve. The 173rd was the first Army unit into Vietnam, coming from Okinawa behind the Marines. They were one of the last units to leave, remaining a brigade-sized unit the whole war. They fought some of the bloodiest battles in the war. Eight days before the battle on Hill 875, the 4/503 fought a one day battle with the NVA near Ben Het. They suffered 20 KIA, 154 WIA, and 2 MIA. Charlie company had 4 dead and virtually everyone else wounded.

[Andy]

I would bet nearly 50% of the 25th ID KIA's took place during 1968. The entire year we seemed to be dealing with two NVA Divisions a couple of independent Regiments and whatever VC were around. We all know about Tet but during the second half of the year, when I was with the choppers, our gun ships were sometimes in the air 12 or more hours a day.

My new friends, the Polish re-enactors, picked the 173rd because they feel the 173rd saw the most action on a per-man basis. Not saying that's true but the argument could be made.

Frisco does anyone break down KIA's by year and unit?

Stay healthy,
Andy

[MontanaKid]

The totals for the Americal's three brigades and non brigade units seem to be 4093. But 196Th's deployed in 1966 and was independent until incorporated into the Americal in 1967. It became independent again after the Americal rolled up it's colors in 1971. The 198th and 11th deactivated, but the 196th moved up to the Danang area where it remained until August 1972. The 2/1 Infantry (now part of the 10th Mountain Division) was officially the last infantry battalion to leave Vietnam.

The total would make the Americal the third highest in death total, which is remarkable in that the Americal was the last full division to be put together. So its existence in Vietnam was relatively short. It fought primarily from January 1968 though its deactivation in the summer of 1971.

But of course some of that casualty total was incurred by the 196th in its 18 months of operation before joining the Americal. And its year in Vietnam after the Americal was deactivated. The bulk of deaths obviously in the later. I am the unofficial historian of our 1/46th battalion and have kept a memorial list for our website (it's down now)

As near as I've been able to discover from the record, we (1/46th) incurred our last fatality October 5 of 1971, so the non-americal remainder of the war for the 196th was relatively quiet. They were primarily assigned to secure Danang. I wonder what the breakdown is for fatalities suffered while independent of the Americal. The bulk of those would be in the 66-67 period, when they mostly operated in the Tay Ninh area. In the summer of 1967 they moved to Quang Tin Province and operated as part of the Oregon Trail operation, a division task force using units of the 101st and 25th, which was the forerunner of the Americal. When the 198th deployed to Vietnam in October of 1967 and the 11th arrived in December, the were briefly under operational control of the 196th Brigade, before the Americal Division command was organized. I assume the bulk of the non-brigade deaths were aviation and the two armored cav units that were attached to the Americal. I'll have to look in to that..

The first Cav of course was there longer than anyone with its deployment stretching from 1965 to 1972, thus the much higher total.

[Robert Ryan]

Sad numbers. To me it reminds me of the cost of freedom.

[frisco-kid]

Some good info, guys. Keep it coming.

Andy, I haven't run across the info you asked about. If I do, I'll sure put it up. Would be interesting to see.

From JUL65 until OCT67 the 101st was only the 1st Brigade, consisting of 3 rifle battalions: 1/327 [James & Pig Humper], 2/327, 2/502 [me]. There was also 1 battery of 1/320th Arty and part of the 326th Eng.. Eventually, the whole division from Ft. Campbell, KY, would be in-country. The first elements started arriving in OCT67, but I don't know when the transfer of the whole division was completed. I was at Bragg by then. Maybe Bill Farnie has more on this.

The 173rd: As I recall, most paratroopers weren't real hot on being sent to them. They had a reputation of expending alot of their personell unnecessarily. It often seemed that they had a disproportionate ratio of casualties. Like alot of units, the 101st included, in the day of the Search and Destroy tactics under Westmoreland, they liked to put a smaller unit out as bait and reinforce it when contact was made. This didn't always seem to work out....alot. I'm guessing that they often underestimated the size of the enemy units that they went up against. Most of the troopers that I met that served with them were glad to be out.....and alive.

[Andy]

I've heard that about the 173rd before, numerous times. Of course no one had a corner on the market for getting ordered to do stupid stuff. Our Mechanized Battalions had two, four vehicle, platoons called Recon. You said it better, "bait". March 24th of '68 one of the platoons ran into a bunch of guys from the 271st Reg. NVA = 6 KIA, 11 WIA, all vehicles destroyed. Then there was an instant replay on March 26th staring the other recon platoon. Yah know, a feller could get hurt playin' that game.

The game I didn't like was doing the clover leaf. Over rice paddies in the dry season it was ok, but in a place as thick as the Hobo Woods, complete with the tunnels of Cu Chi, it really bit.
I know, I know, sorry bout that.

Stay healthy,
Andy

[frisco-kid]

I didn't find the stats that you were interested in, but here's somemore interesting ones.



NUMBER OF U.S. TROOPS SERVING

SERVICE NUMBER % OF TOTAL

Army 1,736,000 67%
Marine Corps 391,000 15%
Air Force 293,000 11%
Navy * 174,000 7%
Total 2,594,000

* Includes 8,000 Coast Guardsmen.

Note: The Southeast Asia Theater encompassed
Indochina, Thailand and the South China Sea.


U.S. Hostile Deaths by Military Service

SERVICE NUMBER % OF TOTAL

Army 30,950 65%
Marines 13,091 28%
Air Force 1,744 4%
Navy 1,628 * 3%
Total 47,413

* The 5 Coast Guardsmen are included in the Navy total.


American Deaths by Year

(Listed in deadliest order)

YEAR ALL DEATHS % OF TOTAL

1968 16,869 29%
1969 11,775 20%
1967 11,348 20%
1966 6,333 11%
1970 6,164 11%
1971 2,413 4%
1965 1,926 3%
1972 763 * 1%
Other Years 607 1%
Total 58,198

* The last U.S. infantry unit was pulled from the field on
Aug. 11, 1972, so U.S. casualties dramatically declined.

* The 143 men subsequently declared dead between 1973
and 2002 are not included in these totals.

* From 1956-1964, 417Americans died in Vietnam.

* During January 1973, 29 Americans died in Vietnam--19
as a result of hostile action. In May 1975, 18
Americans were KIA on Koh Tang Island off Cambodia.

* The three deadliest years of Vietnam (1967, 1968 and
1969) killed 39,992 Americans--3,416 more than the
three years of the entire Korean War.



Major U.S. Army Unit Hostile Deaths

DIVISION/BDE./REGT. KILLED IN ACTION

1st Cavalry 5,444
25th Infantry 4,547
23rd (Americal) 4,040 *
101 st Airborne 4,011
1st Infantry 3,146
9th Infantry 2,624
4th Infantry 2,531
173rd Airborne Brigade 1,748
1st Aviation Brigade 1,701
196th Light Infantry Brigade 1,183
5th Special Forces Group 792
199th Light Infantry Brigade 754
11th Armored Cavalry Regiment 728
5th Mech. Infantry Div. (1st Bde.) 403
82nd Airborne Div. (3rd Bde.) 184

* Includes total for 11th, 198th and 196th (which served part
of its time in Vietnam as a component of the Americal) infantry
brigades. Because the 196th also operated independently, it is
listed separately, too.

Source: The Army at War (The Vietnam Experience series). Boston:
Boston Pub. Co., 1987.



U.S. Army Hostile Deaths by Combat Arms Branch

BRANCH NUMBER % OF TOTAL

Infantry (1) 21,578 70%
Aviation (Helicopter) 1,772 6%
Field Artillery 1,124 4%
Medical Service (2) 1,098 3%
Armor (3) 727 2%
Combat Engineers 609 2%

Note: These branches account for 87% of all 30,950
Army hostile deaths.

(1) Includes Armor recon personnel (11D).

(2) Essentially combat medics.

(3) Includes Armor crewmen, etc.

Source: Estimated by MOS from Washington Headquarters Services
computer reports. Infantry tally could be underestimated.



Top 10 States With Highest Number of Deaths

STATE TOTAL DEATHS

California 5,575
New York 4,119
Texas 3,416
Pennsylvania 3,146
Ohio 3,094
Illinois 2,932
Michigan 2,655
Florida 1,953
North Carolina 1,612
Georgia 1,581



10 Deadliest Battles

BATTLE-------------COMBAT--------------DATES
--------------------FATALITIES--------------------

Ia Drang Valley----300 (1)-------------Oct 23-Nov 26, '65
Khe Sanh-----------205 (2)--------------Jan 20-Apr 14, '68
Dak To--------------192 (3)--------------Nov 1-Dec 1, '67
Cu Nghi-------------121------------------Jan 28-31, '66
Hue------------------119------------------Feb 2-Mar 2, '68
Kim Son Valley-----107------------------Feb 16-28, '66
Con Thien (ambush near)--84---------Jul 2, '67
"Nine Days in May"-79------------------May 18-28, '67
Dak To---------------76-------------------Jun 22, '67
Vinh Huy-------------73-------------------May 30-Jun 2, '67

(1) LZ Albany alone claimed 155 KIA on Nov. 17, making it the single
deadliest U.S. action of the war. LZ X-Ray resulted in another 79 KIA
over two days, Nov. 14-16.

(2) During operations Scotland and Pegasus, a total of 553 Americans
may have been KIA.

(3) 158 of the KIA were sustained at Dak To over six days, Nov. 17-23.

Note: Lengthy operations are excluded. Only actions that could be
categorized as single or directly related engagements are tabulated.

Source: Sigler, David B. Vietnam Battle Chronology: U.S. Army and
Marine Corps Combat Operations, 1965-1973. Jefferson, N.C.:
McFarland & Co., 1992.



Miscellaneous

Aug. 5, 1964 (Gulf of Tonkin Resolution) -Jan. 27, 1973
(Paris Peace Accords)
The official "Vietnam Era" ended May 7, 1975, and extends
back to Feb. 28, 1961, for purposes of VA benefits for
vets who served "in country" between 1961-1964.

PEAK U.S. TROOP STRENGTH
April 1969 = 543,400

TOTAL U.S. DEAD
58,198 (Nov. 1, 1955-May 15, 1975) *

* The Vietnam Veterans Memorial tally
of 58,235 is higher because it regularly
adds post-war WIA deaths.

NON-HOSTILE DEATHS
10,785

TOTAL U.S. WOUNDED (Not mortal, hospitalized)
153,303

PRISONERS OF WAR (U.S.)
766 (652 returned; 114 died in captivity)

DEADLIEST U.S. DAY (KIA)
Jan. 31, 1968 = 246

DEADLIEST U.S. WEEK (KIA)
Feb. 10-17, 1968 = 543

PEAK U.S. FATALITY MONTH
February 1968 = 3,895

MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENTS
245

COPYRIGHT 2003 Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group

[White Oak]

My unit was the last american infantry Company to be pulled out of the field and the last grunt to be wounded was sp/4 Jim McVickers of Cascade,Idaho.He was wounded preparing a night defensive position when he tripped a booby trap(this was on a Wed night) and Fri morning Delta Company"Black Death"3/21 was flown out by choppers and the last US unit was deactived.