New Year's Eve reflections

On New Year's Eve 50 years ago, in 1964, we were closing out a year in which 216 Americans died in Vietnam. That number went to about 1,900 in 1965 and 6,300 in 1966, and then skyrocketed for the following three years.

Today, as we mark the end of another year, I reflect on the sacrifice of the first group of Americans who died in Vietnam on a New Year's Eve.

In researching my book about men who died in Vietnam on a Fourth of July, I determined that 1965 was the first year in which an American died there on Independence Day. The same is true of New Year’s Eve; the first American casualties on a December 31 were in 1965. They are:

  

• Sergeant Donald Raymond Duffy; Ayer, Massachusetts 
• Specialist Fourth Class James Rush Hickman; Philippi, West Virginia
• Specialist Fourth Class Robert Lee Kraus; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 
•  Captain Jack Dale Mc Clure; Modesto, California 
•  Major Robert Michael Sweeney; Chicago, Illinois
• Corporal Emil Jerome Tadevich; Waltham, Massachusetts 
•  Sergeant First Class Louis Bell Twinn; Victoria, Texas 
•  Warrant Officer Alvin Richard Woods; Washington, Indiana

Three Air Force sergeants who were captured by the Vietcong October 31, 1965, are believed to have died in captivity on or about New Year’s Eve 1965:

• Staff Sergeant Samuel Adams; Goldenrod, Florida
• Staff Sergeant Charles G. Dusing; Charleston, South Carolina
• Technical Sergeant Thomas Moore; Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 Their remains were not recovered. All three were promoted to Chief Master Sergeant while missing.

A fourth man captured with them, Staff Sergeant Jasper N. Page of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, escaped on Nov. 2 and made his way back to U.S. forces on Nov. 4. He continued his career and retired from the Air Force in 1971.