I read that only one WWI vet is still alive, any estimates or data on the following:

1. How many WWII vets still with us?
1A. How many WWII combat vets sill here?

2. How many Korea vets....
2A. How many Korea combat vets...

3. How many Vietnam vets
3A. How many Vietnam combat vets...

just curious, leaving out Irag and Afgan, no disrepect but those numbers are still climbing. thanxz for any input.

I can guess- NOT MANY. All 3 of those wars were very brutal on combat lines.

A gentleman just passed away this week in my area that served in WWII, Korea, Dominican Republic and Viet Nam with the USMC.
He got two Purple Hearts out of it.

There is no distinction between Veterans and Combat Vets that served during war.

quote:

Originally posted by 6385480:
I can guess- NOT MANY. All 3 of those wars were very brutal on combat lines.

OK it's not the rocking chair brigade yet for Vietnam Veterans.....

Have a Relative that was a LT in Vietnam with the 82nd Airborne (Infantry, think he ETS'd as CPT), he is still around and still jumping out of planes at 68 more then 10k jumps under his belt.

My former 41st Infantry BN Commander was a PL in Vietnam (2nd AD) with the 101st and is still around helping out the wounded warrior GWOT vets at the 101st. He was my BN CDR well over 40 years old and we were running with flack jackets on for 6-7 miles at a very fast clip in 1985. I was only 22 and those runs were extremely challenging for me.....and I have long legs.

Both are Combat Vets and earned the CIB.

I think 65-70 is the new 35-40.

know a fellow in my small town who flew P51's in WWII and he is stil going strong. I am a CIB from Nam with the 101st, have met a few brothers who are also from the same era with the 101st; all sorts of MOS's.

Have always heard the ratio of 10:1 for support personnel in relation to combat personnel. Assume for the purpose of illustration that 3 million served in Vietnam, then about 300,000 would be combat related, less attrition due to illness, disease, age, suicide, accidents, etc. Much less for Korea and even less for WWII (due to passing of time between these events allowing for greater attrition.)

So would it be fair to say that maybe there are only 1/2 to 3/4 million combat vets left (excluding Iraq, Afgan, etc). Yet the number of folks I meet that were part of a SEAL team is far out of proportion, along with those that were on Ops so classified they can't talk about it!

Army Infantry can be ID'ed from the CIB, but not so with USMC, Navy, Air Force,

Just was wondering and thought it was very interesting that almost everyone I meet is a combat vet.

I read, in Vietnam Order of Battle, the logistic tail in Vietnam was 14 Support Troops for every 1 Soldier in the field.

The Gulf War was a little better, something like 12-13 Support Troops for every 1 in the field.

quote:

Originally posted by gumbydammit:
I read, in Vietnam Order of Battle, the logistic tail in Vietnam was 14 Support Troops for every 1 Soldier in the field.

The Gulf War was a little better, something like 12-13 Support Troops for every 1 in the field.

Not to highjack the thread, but I've heard that its something like 7 to 1. However, I think that is based upon High Intensity Conflict. During Stability Ops, my guess is that the ratio is much, much higher...

I think the CPT is right about the 7 to 1 ratio.
Now that we use a lot of contracters to do most of the cooking, building and other stuff.

7 to 1 would increase the number of combat vets in the current operations, but 14 to 1 would reduce the number in past ops.

so, anybody care to guess about the number around today? is 500,0000 or so fair?????

Unlike many previous conflicts, it isn't just the Infantry and Armor guys out there in "combat." That's one reason for the CAB.
Find how many have earned a CAB and that's how many NON-Infantry have earned it since 2001. Might help.

I would say 500k does sound about right to me for WWII, Korea and Vietnam, the wars after as well.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ErichG2,