Statistics of Death

For the first time in more than six years of U.S. involvement in Viet Nam, the Defense Department last week issued a detailed tabulation of American war dead. The breakdown enumerated the home states, ranks and ages of the 7,826 servicemen killed by the enemy up to March 1, 1967. Items: > California, the nation's most populous state, took the heaviest losses: 683 dead. New York, second most populous, had the second highest toll: 530. Next were Pennsylvania, 484; Texas, 442; Ohio, 388 and Illinois, 378. >Southern states—a point not made by the Pentagon—suffered proportionately higher losses than other regions: e.g., Alabama, 196; Georgia, 200 and North Carolina, 228.

>Among the total combat dead were 6,878 enlisted men, 868 officers and 80 warrant officers, which corresponds closely to overall numbers by rank in the armed services.

— Of all age groups, the greatest number of servicemen who died were 20 years old (1,340), followed by 19-year-olds (1,178), and 21-year-olds (1,076).

Though the proportion of Negroes to whites in Viet Nam is higher than the domestic civilian ratio (23% v. 11%), the Pentagon issued no comparative figures on their casualties. Because a great number of Negroes volunteer for the riskier assignments, their losses presumably are relatively higher.