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Showing posts with the label Oregon Vietnam War Memorials

How many Oregonians served and died in the Vietnam War?

The Vietnam War was a conflict that had its beginnings for Americans in 1955 and lasted until the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. The main timeframe of the war was after the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964 until the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973. Detailed stats from the Vietnam Veterans of America website tells us that 2.6 million American military personnel served in the Vietnam War and around 1 to 1.6 million were in combat in some measure. The average age for these soldiers that served was only 19. Out of this number, 57,000 military personnel from Oregon served in the Vietnam War. An Oregon Live article written on May 27, 2017, highlights the Oregon Vietnam Veterans Living Memorial located at Washington Park near the Oregon Zoo in Portland; the memorial was dedicated in 1987 to those who died or are MIA in the Vietnam War, which now includes 818 veterans. The total number of those who died and were MIA in Vietnam is 58,156 American veterans. The total number of wou