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America’s Youngest Warriors – Children Who Fought for the US

Khalid Elhassan April 4, 2025 17 min

Children - US Army Sergeant John Lincoln Clem — US Army Sergeant John Lincoln Clem. Metropolitan Museum of Art

1. The Youngest American to Make the Ultimate Sacrifice in the Vietnam War

Children - Dan Bullock — Dan Bullock. Black Past

Dan Bullock might have been big for his age, but he was still a boy in every regard. Surrounded by men, he kept to himself, and his comrades noticed. Assigned base security duties, he was in a bunker with three other Marines on the night of June 6^th, 1969, when North Vietnamese sappers stealthily crept under the wire that surrounded the base. They got close enough to Dan’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, and the youngest American military fatality since World War I.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

American Battlefield Trust – John Clem

Clarke, Frances M., and Plant, Rebecca Jo – Of Age: Boy Soldiers and Military Power in the Civil War Era (2022)

Find a Grave – Gustav Albert Schurmann (1849 – 1905)

History Collection – These 12 Tragic and Triumphant Teenagers Who Fought in World War II Will Astound You

Keesee, Dennis M. – Too Young to Die: Boy Soldiers of the Civil War (2001)

Military dot Com – How a Civil War Drummer Boy Became the Youngest Medal of Honor Recipient

New York Times, June 7^th, 2019 – He Enlisted at 14, Went to Vietnam at 15, and Died a Month Later

Ohio History Central – Johnny Klem

Pearl Harbor Visitors Bureau – Calvin Graham, the Youngest Recruit

Peladeau, Marius B. – Willie Went to War: Willie Johnston, Youngest Medal of Honor Recipient, Drummer, 3^rd Vermont Regiment (2005)

Smithsonian Magazine, December 19^th, 2012 – This 12-Year-Old Boy Fought on a World War II Battleship and Became the Nation’s Youngest Decorated War Hero

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund – Dan Bullock

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.