the men in the infantry had very high casualty rates and my analysis is that the average time for an infantryman to be wounded or killed was about one and half months. In our case in the Marines, it meant that everyone in the rifle companies were wounded at least once in their tours (you could not throw an M26 frag grenade in open ground far enough to avoid being hit by your own frags, for instance)
That means that far fewer of our surviving Vietnam Vets were actually in direct combat - and we are dying off faster because of the residuals of wounds, the diseases we caught out in the fields and the poisons the Air Force so thoughtfully sprayed uphill of us while we filled our canteens downstream (I have had aggressive prostate cancer and so has every single surviving member of my rifle company).
One of our responders commented that the Vietnam Veterans he knew were uniformly cranky - I'm sure that he's messed up but given the incredible heat, humidity, rate of diseases, rate of death and injuries that we had (plus a very close to 100% "Dear John" Rate), and the rousing treasonous reception we got when we got back - maybe a little crankiness is in order?
Americal Division..Duc Pho, Chu Lai, Khe Sahn, artillery officer, forward observer, fire direction officer…’70-‘71…