The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Troopers of the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, make a combat assault, December 1966.
Troopers of the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, make a combat assault, December 1966. Photo: SP5 Charles V. Hoover, U.S. Army, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Blaine Joseph Shepherd.

The Wall › Panel 42W › Utah › Blaine Joseph Shepherd

BLAINE JOSEPH SHEPHERD

Specialist Five · U.S. Army

May 12, 1947 – September 29, 1968

Service record

Blaine Joseph Shepherd, of Thistle, Utah, served as a Specialist Five in the U.S. Army. He died on September 29, 1968, in Long Khanh Province, South Vietnam, at age 21. His name is inscribed on Panel 42W, Line 43 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 42W · Line 43

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.

Remember

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Service

Branch
U.S. Army
Rank
Specialist Five (SP5)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Utility Helicopter Repairer (67N)
Unit (as recorded)
11 ARMORED CAV
Born
May 12, 1947
Home of record
Thistle, Utah (Utah County)

Casualty

Date of death
September 29, 1968
Age
21
Province
Long Khanh
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Helicopter Crash — crew

Context · from the records

What was happening

34 names on the Wall carry the date September 29, 1968; four of them were lost in Long Khanh Province. In September 1968, 1,184 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The unit recorded as “11 ARMORED CAV”, his unit in the record, lost 13 of its members that month.

Also on Panel 42W, Line 43

Same unit, same day

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.