The military and warfare have attracted boys since time immemorial. It could be the uniforms, camaraderie, opportunity to display courage and gain respect, a rite of passage into manhood or a combination of those and other factors. Whatever the reason or reasons, the adventure of war has long been an irresistible Sirens’ call to many boys. Some answer, and join the military while still children. Sometimes, the precocious kid becomes a hero. Many times, though, as seen below in the case of Dan Bullock, it does not end well.
Private First Class Dan Bullock
On the night of June 7th, 1969, North Vietnamese sappers silently crept towards a bunker near the airstrip of An Hoa Combat Base in South Vietnam. Slowly and stealthily they crawled. When they got close enough to their target, they tossed a satchel charge through the bunker’s slit. The resultant explosion claimed the lives of four US Marines. One of them was Private First Class Dan Bullock. He earned the unfortunate distinction of becoming the youngest American serviceman killed in the Vietnam War. He was fifteen-years-old.
The unfortunate child Marine was born on December 21st, 1953, in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and was raised there along with a younger sister by their mother, until she passed away when Bullock was eleven. The children were forced to leave Goldsboro for Brooklyn, to live with their father and stepmother. Bullock was not happy with the relocation. He did not like his new living conditions, was discouraged by the lack of opportunity in Brooklyn, and often dreamt of a more promising future elsewhere.
A Fourteen-Year-Old in the Marine Corps
In an interview, Dan Bullock’s father recalled that when his son was asked what he wanted to be when he grew, his top three picks were a policeman, a pilot, or a United States Marine. Bullock’s father wanted his son to get an education, but his son told him that enlisting was the quickest way to get an education through the GI Bill. He eventually decided to join the Marines, but he did not want to wait until he grew up.
In September, 1968, fourteen-year-old Bullock entered a US Marine Corps recruitment center with a doctored birth certificate in hand. The birth year on the document was altered from 1953 to 1949, which made him eighteen – old enough to enlist. His family was unaware of what he had been up to, until he came back home with his enlistment papers in hand. Sadly, his father did not march him back to the recruitment center to explain what had happened, and undo the Marines’ enlistment of a child.
A Child Marine in Vietnam
Dan Bullock might have been just fourteen, but he was big and strong for his age. He stood five feet nine, and weighed a hundred and sixty pounds. However, he was still just a child, and struggled to make it through the tough training Marine recruits underwent at Parris Island. With the help of fellow recruits, though, he managed to survive boot camp, and emerge as a Marine rifleman. It was precocious, but sadly, the story soon took a turn from the inspirational to the tragic.
US Marine Corps Private First Class Dan Bullock was sent to fight in Vietnam, a war whose insatiable maw was ever hungry for more and more bodies. He landed in South Vietnam on May 18th, 1969. Pfc Bullock became a rifleman in Fox Company, Second Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. He 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.
The Youngest US Serviceman to Die in the Vietnam War
Bullock was big for his age and looked like he was eighteen, but he really was not. He was still a boy who was surrounded by men, and had not yet developed the social skills to deal with his new environment. Fellow Marines noticed that he kept to himself. Assigned base security duties, Pfc Bullock was in a bunker with three other Marines on the night of June 7th, 1969, when enemy sappers silently crawled beneath the barbed wire that surrounded the base.
They got close enough to Bullock’s bunker to toss a satchel charge through a 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. He had been in Vietnam for only twenty one days. He was buried in Goldsboro, North Carolina, where a North Carolina state historical marker that commemorated his service and sacrifice was unveiled near his childhood home in 2017. In Brooklyn, a stretch of Lee Avenue was renamed in his honor.
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Some Sources & Further Reading
New York Times, June 7th, 2019 – He Enlisted at 14, Went to Vietnam at 15, and Died a Month Later
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund – Dan Bullock
