The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
An airman lights a candle during POW/MIA recognition week at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina.
An airman lights a candle during POW/MIA recognition week at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. Photo: A1C Aaron Jenne, U.S. Air Force, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Barry Allen Olson.

The Wall › Panel 42W › Minnesota › Barry Allen Olson

BARRY ALLEN OLSON

Sergeant First Class · U.S. Army

August 4, 1947 – September 26, 1968

Service record

Barry Allen Olson, of Albert Lea, Minnesota, served as a Sergeant First Class in the U.S. Army. He was lost on September 26, 1968, in Darlac Province, South Vietnam, and was later declared dead. His name is inscribed on Panel 42W, Line 20 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 42W · Line 20

Position of Panel 42W on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Names are inscribed in the order of loss, starting at Panel 1E at the apex and ending at Panel 1W. At the Memorial, find the panel number at the base and count down from the top line.

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Service

Branch
U.S. Army
Rank
Sergeant First Class (SFC)
Service
Regular
Unit (as recorded)
US ARMY REP OF VIETNAM
Born
August 4, 1947
Home of record
Albert Lea, Minnesota (Freeborn County)

Casualty

Date of loss
September 26, 1968
Province
Darlac
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Declared Dead
Circumstance
Unknown
First reported
Missing in action
Remains
Not recovered as of the 2008 DoD record

Context · from the records

What was happening

55 names on the Wall carry the date September 26, 1968; seven of them were lost in Darlac Province. In September 1968, 1,184 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The unit recorded as “US ARMY REP OF VIETNAM”, his unit in the record, lost 3 of its members that month.

His remains had not been recovered when the 2008 record was compiled. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency continues to search for Americans still missing from the war; families can find case information through dpaa.mil.

Read the history

On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 42W, Line 20

From Albert Lea

Source. U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Casualty Analysis System, Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File (as of April 29, 2008), Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Record Group 330, National Archives (NAID 2240992). Panel and line as recorded in that file. This page presents the official record and its historical context; no biography has been written for him yet. See something wrong? Report a correction.