The Wall › Panel 45E › Ohio › Billie Orr Kean
BILLIE ORR KEAN
Staff Sergeant · U.S. Marine Corps
April 10, 1942 – March 16, 1968
Service recordBillie Orr Kean, of Alexandria, Ohio, served as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on March 16, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 25. His name is inscribed on Panel 45E, Line 3 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 45E · Line 3
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.
Remember
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Service
- Branch
- U.S. Marine Corps
- Rank
- Staff Sergeant (SSGT)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Infantry Unit Leader (0369)
- Born
- April 10, 1942
- Home of record
- Alexandria, Ohio (Licking County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- March 16, 1968
- Age
- 25
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Small Arms Fire
Context · from the records
What was happening
51 names on the Wall carry the date March 16, 1968; nine of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
He died in Quảng Trị Province while the siege of Khe Sanh was under way. From 21 January 1968, North Vietnamese divisions besieged the Marine combat base at Khe Sanh and its hill outposts near the Laotian border for 77 days, while U.S. aircraft dropped some 100,000 tons of bombs around it. Operation Pegasus reached the base on 8 April. The casualty record gives the province and date, not the exact place, so it does not say whether he fell in the battle itself.
Read the history
Also on Panel 45E, Line 3
- EDWARD L KRAUSMANSergeant · March 16, 1968
- BRUCE WAYNE LOISELLEPrivate First Class · March 16, 1968
- JAMES BRIAN LAWRENCE MAKINSpecialist Four · March 16, 1968
- WELDON BERNARD MERRILLSergeant First Class · March 16, 1968
From Alexandria
- RAY ELLSWORTH JOHNSONSpecialist Four · November 21, 1966
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.