![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/92940236-300x200.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
February 9, 1965<\/p>\n
A U.S. Marine Corps Hawk air defense missile battalion is deployed to Da Nang. President Johnson had ordered this deployment to provide protection for the key U.S. airbase there.<\/p>\n
This was the first commitment of American combat troops in South Vietnam and there was considerable reaction around the world to the new stage of U.S. involvement in the war. Predictably, both communist China and the Soviet Union threatened to intervene if the United States continued to apply its military might on behalf of the South Vietnamese. In Moscow, some 2,000 demonstrators, led by Vietnamese and Chinese students and clearly supported by the authorities, attacked the U.S. Embassy. Britain and Australia supported the U.S. action, but France called for negotiations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Many years later, the United States would pull out of Vietnam\u00a0after a stalemate. The South Vietnamese lost the Vietnam War, not the United States. On March 27, 1973, American troops departed Vietnam and on April 30, 1975 Saigon fell.<\/p>\n
\n
- 58,315 KIA<\/li>\n
- 153,303 WIA<\/li>\n
- 1,618 MIA<\/li>\n
- 766\u2013778 POW<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The average age of those KIA was 23.1 years. I was\u00a0playing with building blocks and watching Sesame Street when these men were being killed in Vietnam. At 23, I was still deciding what to do when I grew up. These heroes never had that opportunity and for that, I am forever grateful.<\/p>\n
There is not a week that goes by that I do not pause and think about the sacrifice\u00a0our nations fallen\u00a0heroes have made for me. We need to purposefully honor our fallen heroes and make their sacrifice personal.<\/p>\n
Where were you on February 9, 1965?<\/p>\n
What were you doing when you were 23 years old?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n