Several months ago, the VFW Magazine had a lengthy article that discussed the children that fought in the Civil War. Incredibly, some boys, as young as 12 and 13 years of age, engaged in combat operations, many of whom were killed. Of course, we have all heard stories or perhaps had first-hand accounts of men who lied about their age to enlist in the Armed Forces during World War II. I wondered if the same may have true for the Vietnam War.
Depending on which search engine one uses, an inquiry will produced anywhere from 14 to 19 million references to “underage boys in Armed Forces”. Several sources revealed some sobering statistics regarding the names that appear on The Wall.
Underage boys successfully entered the military during the Vietnam War, although the exact number of underage soldiers cannot be determined. However, the names of five soldiers who were 16 years of age appear on The Wall. The youngest American serviceman who was killed in action during the Vietnam War was Dan Bullock who was 15 years old. Dan was born in North Carolina but moved to Brooklyn, New York at the age of 13 when his mother died. A year later, he altered his birth certificate and enlisted in the Marine Corps. As a member of Platoon 3039, he graduated from boot camp in December 1968. Dan arrived in Vietnam in May 1969 and was assigned as a rifleman in 2nd Squad, 2nd Platoon, Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division. He was stationed at An Hoa Combat Base. Just three weeks after arriving in Vietnam, during an NVA night attack on his base camp, 15 year old Dan Bullock was killed by small arms fire while making ammunition run to resupply his beleaguered unit.
Thankfully, a search for underage boys successfully joining the Armed Forces since the Vietnam War has not produced any results. We can only hope that procedures have been put into place that will preclude this from ever happening again.
The views expressed in this column are solely those of the Commander and do not represent those of VFW Post #8870, its membership, or VFW.