I've been updating the cemeteries on my site and running

[shraby]

across many many Vietnam vets who died since 1975. I figure they are dying at least 20 years early than they should be because the WWII vets are being put on in the same time frame. Agent Orange victims?

[HereSince1628]

1. Agent orange, suicides and street deaths and

you can't forget that Vietnam vets were children when a whole lot of bad things came about in the environment and diet.

We are the guys who remember that when we were small children we stepped onto floroscopes in shoe stores. We eagerly consumed all manner of agricultural products sprayed with second generation hydrocarbon pesticides, and we ate snow contaminated with radio-isotopes from atmospheric testing of atomic bombs. And we taught the world that good mom's fed their kids processed meals high in salt and nitrate preservatives. Mom also introduced us to the lard laden french fries from McDonalds. Our friends taught us about recreational chemicals made in someone's garage.

Now realizing the mess we are in, we are deeply depressed and drink way too much and exercise far too little.

Longevity is not one of the things I expect from my generation, Vietnam Vets or not.

On edit, I can't understand why my children are worried about SS and the need to support masses of baby-boomers into old age.

[shraby]

2. Guess I'll just have to wait till I find the obits to go with the

entries. I'm thier age and it's alarming to me to see them dying much earlier.

[HereSince1628]

3. My triple by-pass changed my mind that 60 was the new 40.

I think you might as well go ahead and worry...just don't get reckless you could be one of the lucky ones who gets to live till 110 with all the accumulated damage

Who wants that? :shrug:

[shraby]

4. I've put a lot of entries in my cems and I was surprised to see

the uptick in Vietnam vets. In this area, we don't have the violence and street people the cities have. I think it's an interesting statistic that doesn't come to the fore under normal circumstances.

[HereSince1628]

5. Just curious...how do you know they are veterans?

Is it a line on burial records? The burial marker that's provided as a veteran's benefit?

[shraby]

8. They have the bronze (or whatever material) marker

that the government makes for veterans. Civil war had marble stones and the rest have the bronze ones that can lay flat or be attached to their tombstone with the name, dates, rank and name of war on them.

[HereSince1628]

9. Right. I know what you're describing.

A vet must request that marker, and it may be that the rise you see in the number coming to your attention is due to the economy. Flat bronze plate markers aren't terribly expensive but they aren't free either. I can see during this recession that the family of a vet dying young might need that bit of savings.

[Hannah Bell]

6. i know so many boomers who died under 65 -- "middle-class" people who

(demographically) don't fit the profile for early death.

i'd begun to consider the idea that our average lifespan is going to be lower than our elders'.

[ipfilter]

7. Sadly, My FIL

who is on the Agent Orange registry passed away three weeks ago. He had heart Ischemia but died from small cell carcinoma in the lungs. He did smoke but he also had symptoms of nearly every ailment known from Agent Orange exposure. He was approved for 100% disability from the VA two weeks before he passed based on his Agent Orange exposure. He was a Vietnam Vet and a recipient of a Purple Heart. He was 58. The nurse at the hospice said she sees many Vietnam Vets that pass away before age 60.

[AlabamaLibrul]

13. Similar situation here

except I don't know for sure if he was on the AO registry. Had a massive heart attack and his heart literally fell apart in the surgeon's hands while starting a (failed) transplant. He only lived to his late 40s.

[HubertHeaver]

10. That would be an interesting study.

First thing one must realize is there are more of us (in-country Viet Nam veterans) than there are WWII and Korea veterans combined. The WWII generation also had the state of the medical arts in the early part of the 20th century and then the depression to thin their numbers. i.e. only the strong survive.

I remember thinking in '72 or '73 that modern medical care (post '45) was saving the weak babies that in previous generations would have died. I predicted there would be a spike in deaths for this group when they reached their 50's and 60's.

[shraby]

11. Another interesting phenomenon I've notice is a lot of people

die in the same month of their birth month. I have over 100,000 people in all the cems so it's something I've noticed.

[ipfilter]

12. My Dad was a former Funeral Director

and noticed this. People tend to die close to their birth dates. Another anecdotal trend, people who passed away within two years of retiring. It would be interesting to see true study on that.