Submitted Photo Retired U.S. Marine Corps Col. John McKay was commander of Hotel Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, in Vietnam.

During my tenure in the Vietnam War, I was privileged to serve proudly with a full-blood Hidatsa-Mandan Native American, Cletus Charles Foote, from the Mandan, Hidatsa Arikara (MHA) Nation.

A U.S. Marine Corps volunteer, Cletus quickly established himself as a first-class warrior. Statistically, Cletus was an exception. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Department of Defense did not keep records on the numbers of Native Americans who served in the armed forces. but scholars estimate that as many as 42,000 Native Americans served in the Vietnam War, according to the National Museum of the American Indian.

One of four eligible Native Americans compared to about one of twelve non-indigenous served in the armed forces during the war in Vietnam (1964-1975), according to the United States of America, 50th Commemoration of the Vietnam War.

Many were drafted, but a large number volunteered, often citing family and tribal traditions of service as a reason.

A dark side of war is the killing and maiming. During the Vietnam War there were 47,359 hostile deaths, i.e., deaths due to enemy action. There were 303,704 personnel wounded in action (WIA). 153,329 required hospitalizations; of the 75,000 severely wounded, 23,214 were classified 100% disabled; 5,283 lost limbs, 1,081 sustained multiple amputations. Amputation or crippling wounds to the lower extremities were 300% higher than in WWII and 70% higher than in Korea. Multiple amputations occurred at the rate of 18.4% compared to 5.7% in WWII, according to Vietnam War statistics.

Given American natives’ high level of volunteering to serve and sacrifice for their country, it borders on travesty that even today detailed records of those sacrifices are not kept.

As guests of the MHA Nation and Cletus, in Parshall last year, my wife Margo and I personally witnessed the tribal tradition of willingness to serve our nation.

Cletus and I served together in Vietnam. We often operated in a particularly treacherous area known as “Arizona Territory.” Casualties were high. It was the norm once a unit left the relative safety of either a company or battalion perimeter that at least one or more Marines or accompanying U. S. Navy Corpsmen would be either killed or wounded. Cletus, always taciturn but ever willing, would volunteer for either ‘point man’ or ‘tail-end Charlie,’ two of the most dangerous positions on any combat patrol/operation.