keep in mind, these are just the confirmed kills.
there is a reason the Jr LT & LT are showing fewer KIA than the Sr LTs, and thats because in many cases the junior officers familes havent been able to afford a memorial or obit that would get noticed by the folks running that page.
The Jr LT rank is equivalent to a what we would call a 3rd LT- which is a ROTC or West Point Cadet in their 3rd summer training with actual troops. They arent Warrant Officers, those would fall under the "Other" section.
but the LT and Sr LT are what we would call a 2nd (O1) and 1st LT (O2).
Here is a breakdown of the officers killed in Vietnam. We didnt often send butter bar LTs into combat, and their KIA numbers show that. basically we only had 1/3 the number of 2LT killed vs 1LT, and half the number compared to Captains.
but what these numbers show is that it was the PILOTS who were a massive majority of the senior officer losses. for us in Vietnam. Air Force lost 9X the number of Full Bird Col as the Army. Russia isnt flying sorties much anymore, mostly because their planes are short of parts, fuel or functionality.
our losses below are from 1963-1972, we lost a total of 7,877 officers in NINE years of fighting. the Russians are getting very, very, very close to that number in just 4 years.
Of the 12 Generals lost in the war, only 5 were killed by enemy action, 2 of natural causes and the other 6 all died in helicoper crashes or air to air collisions.
Officer casualties by rank (Army, USMC, Navy, and Air Force)
Rank
Army
USMC
Navy
Air Force
O8
2
1
2
N/A
O7
5
1
1
N/A
O6
19
7
25
184
O5
117
30
92
187
O4
253
78
166
399
O3
1,017
212
167
653
O2
1,475
309
153
236
O1
496
284
18
8
W1-W4
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A