The Tragic History of the U.S. Child Warriors

The Tragic History of the U.S. Child Warriors

Khalid Elhassan - June 9, 2020

The Tragic History of the U.S. Child Warriors
An Hoa Combat Base, which Bullock was guarding when he was killed. Wikimedia

31. The Youngest American Killed in the Vietnam War

USMC Private first class Dan Bullock was sent to Vietnam in May, 1969, to serve as a rifleman in the 1st Marine Division. The child Marine ended up in Quang Nam Province, and was stationed in An Hoa Combat Base, about 25 miles southwest of Danang. By then, he was all of fifteen.

Assigned base security duties, Dan was in a bunker with three other Marines on the night of June 6th, 1969, when North Vietnamese sappers stealthily crept under the wire surrounding the base. They got close enough to Dan’s bunker to toss a satchel charge through the firing slit. The explosion killed all four occupants. Dan Bullock was the youngest American killed in the Vietnam War, or since World War I, for that matter.

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