SEMPER FI: NEVER FORGOTTEN!
Written By: Diane Hight
The youngest American serviceman to be killed in action in the Vietnam War was just 15 years old. Today, we remember the young life of Private First Class Dan Bullock, who died in the service of our country after lying about his age to be to able join the U.S. Marine Corps.
Bullock was born in Goldsboro, North Carolina on December 21, 1953. Following the loss of his mother’s, 12-year-old Dan and his sister left for Brooklyn, New York in order to stay with his father and stepmother. His dream was to be an Air Force pilot, a police officer, or a U.S. Marine.
By September 18, 1968, America was already neck-deep in the Vietnam War and enlistment of citizens into the military was in full swing. Bullock was 14 years old at the time, with a height of 5 foot 9 inches and a weight of 160 pounds. He decided to join the military.
The minimum age for enlistment was 17 years old and even at that age, one would need parental consent to serve. But Bullock was completely undeterred by this restriction. He managed to alter his birth certificate, showing his year 1949, instead of 1953. The recruitment staff at Albee Square Marine recruiting station was none the wiser.
Believing Bullock was 19 years old, they gave him the green light: he successfully enlisted with the U.S. Marine Corps and was assigned with Platoon 3039 in Parris Island.
After struggling through months of training at boot camp, Bullock managed to graduate with the help of Franklin McArthur, a fellow recruit who befriended him.
According to McArthur, he had decided to help the 14-year-old through the rigorous boot camp training because he understood what put a rifle in the boy’s hands: the desire to help his family. Bullock’s father earned a living as a lumber worker and a sharecropper, and Bullock wanted to help, but he had no skills to land a job in New York.
McArthur’s decision to assist the boy, however, would become a choice that would later haunt him.
Bullock arrived in South Vietnam, over 8,500 miles away from home, on May 18, 1969. One can only imagine what was running through his mind as he stepped into the atmosphere of South Vietnam where the sound of war seemed to have become constant.
Now aged 15 and a private first class, he was assigned to 2nd Squad, 2nd Platoon, Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division, where he served as a rifleman. Bullock was stationed at An Hoa Combat Base, a few kilometers west of Hội An, in Quảng Nam Province. At 1:00 a.m. on June 7, 1969, the base came under attack by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA).
Hostilities grew through the night and casualties rose on both sides. Bullock played his own role in the fight, trying as much as he could to help keep the base from falling into the hands of the NVA.
As the attack pressed on, it would soon be clear that the Marines were outgunned. Bullock promptly began making runs to deliver extra ammunition to his beleaguered comrades who were desperately trying to hold off the assault.
Sadly, while he was on his second supply run, Bullock was hit by several rounds from small firearms and perished instantly.
It wasn’t until reporters paid a visit to Bullock’s family that America came to know that Bullock was only 15 years old. Such a young man’s decision to go to war is not something everyone would be able to understand.
According to his sister Gloria, “[Dan] wanted to get an education, to make something of himself, and saw the Marines as a way to get there.” He had plans to continue his education upon returning from Vietnam.
After his interment, Bullock’s gravesite in Goldsboro, North Carolina remained without a headstone for 31 years.
A headstone was donated in 2000 by talk-show host Sally Jessy Raphael. In honor of his bravery, in June 2003 the New York City Council renamed a section of Lee Avenue in Brooklyn, where Bullock had lived since he was 11 years old, in his honor.
In reminiscing about his days at boot camp with Bullock, McArthur stated in an interview that a Marine who knew how he had helped Bullock get through boot camp had asked him a gut-wrenching question: “Did you ever think that if you didn’t help him, he might have lived?”
Bullock’s name can be found on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. among those of the 58,266 servicemen who made the ultimate sacrifice. Bullock is not the only one who was underage: at least five others were 16 years old, and at least 12 were 17 years old. Their service to our country will never be forgotten.